The Road Untraveled
by armless-phelan
Summary: In the aftermath of Jackson's death, the teens of Beacon Hills find their priorities, and loyalties, changing.
1. Chapter 1

Allison smiled as she sharpened her knife. She'd spent her morning practising sliding it into a ribcage and puncturing a lung, but the blade had dulled when it scraped the rib bones on the skeleton.

When her phone chirped to alert her of an incoming text, she set the blade and the whetstone on her desk and picked up her phone. Her smile fell when she saw that her was her boyfriend blowing her off yet again.

Since she found out he was a werewolf, Allison had dealt with a lot. She had her breakdown after her mom died, but with the help of Ms. Morrell she was beginning to adjust. Her dad was letting her see Scott again after the ugliness with her grandfather. Lydia was only a little bit crazy, though Jackson's death did set her back quite a bit.

"You are an ass," Allison said to her phone as though Scott were on the other end. She threw it on her bed and picked up her knife. Then she stabbed her desk angrily. The blade stuck out of the wood as she grabbed her bow. She needed to burn off some anger and she still had that picture of Derek Hale on her target in the basement.

TW

"Dude, I'm telling you, this is gonna blow up in your face when Allison finds out," Stiles warned his best friend as he checked to make sure nobody was coming. "Why can't we tell her about Danny?"

"Because he asked us not to tell anyone," Scott answered as he tied his shoes. "You'd feel the same way if you killed your best friend."

Stiles double checked the area around the charred remains of the Hale House. No Hunters or werewolves that weren't Scott were in sight.

"I'd hear or smell someone coming before you saw them," Scott reminded Stiles as he stood up and stretched. "Now remember, we don't talk about Jackson when Danny gets here."

"Yeah, because we have so much else in common."

Stiles stayed at the house as Scott did a quick perimeter check to make sure there was nobody else around. Derek and his Uncle Peter had warned of another pack on the way to Beacon Hills, but there weren't many other deserted places in town to have secret rendezvous. Though how much of a secret it could be when half the town had been attacked by someone at the Hale House astounded Stiles.

He kicked some scattered leaves off the porch as he thought about his dad and how he still didn't even know about anything in town. Stiles wished he could confide in him like Scott could his mom, but if he knew he'd probably move and take his son with him. The last thing Stiles wanted to do was abandon his best friend.

"Where's Scott?" a deep voice asked.

Stiles whirled around in the direction of the sound and saw Danny walking up to the house. He wasn't smiling, but Danny hadn't smiled in ages.

"Off doing werewolf things to make sure there's nobody around. You might've heard him peeing on a tree or something."

"Funny," Danny replied as he stepped onto the porch.

They stood awkwardly for a few minutes, waiting on Scott to arrive and not saying anything. The only people that knew how Jackson died were the three that would be at the house that night, and only Danny and Scott knew how. Despite his best efforts, Stiles hadn't been able to pry out of his best friend what happened. All he was told was that Danny was as human as he and Allison were.

"So, about them Yankees..." Stiles started before being interrupted by Scott's arrival.

Seeing Scott in wolf form was always a little unsettling for Stiles, but he was relatively used to it. Danny, however, was not even though they'd been coming out here three nights a week for the past two weeks. Stiles always felt a little cooler for not flinching.

"We're clear, but there are some kids from school a couple miles over getting drunk so we probably only have an hour," Scott told his friends as he eased back into his human form. "Less if Derek and his pack show up. Are you two ready?"

"Two? I thought I was just the lookout guy. You know, while you two do whatever I stand outside and scream like a little girl if anybody with claws or guns shows up," Stiles protested.

Danny shifted his feet but didn't say anything. He just locked eyes with Scott and nodded.

"We've been talking, Stiles, and it makes no sense for us to do this without you," Scott reasoned. "Allison can take care of herself because she has her dad training her. It's about time someone trained you."

Holding his hands in the form a "T" as if he were signalling to a referee for a timeout, Stiles stammered, "Hold up. You wanna train me to fight werewolves? What do you think I've been doing all this time?"

"Running away and getting knocked out," Scott answered simply. "And I'm not teaching you how to fight, I'm teaching you how to survive. I can't always be here to rescue you guys and Derek is worried about another pack moving in, in case you've forgotten.

"I just want you to know enough to hold them off until the Argents or I can get there. Provided you can't scream like a girl and run away first."

"Whatever," Stiles grumbled before looking at Danny. "If I get a black eye I'm telling everyone that you did it."

Blinking, Danny stared at Stiles. "What would you say I did?"

"You found me irresistible and came onto me, but because I don't kiss on the first date I fought you off."

Danny continued staring at Stiles but said nothing further.

"Let's just get inside before you two start making out," Scott teased as he passed between them and into the empty house.

The big hole that Derek's Uncle Peter had been revived from gaped like a festering wound on the Earth. Stiles reasoned that Danny probably didn't even know what it was from.

"Stiles, I want you to attack me while Danny tries to run. Can you do that?"

"Does Jessica Peters wear a pushup bra?" Stiles answered as he ran at Scott. Three seconds later he was on his back and Scott had his hand around Danny's throat.

"No banter. It slows your reaction time," Scott instructed as he released Danny. Danny responded by punching Scott in the face and kneeing him in the balls before running out the door.

"I see what you mean," Stiles laughed as he helped Scott up. He stood and watched as Scott ran after Danny. Thirty seconds later Scott was dragging a panting Danny back into the house.

Three more times Scott had them repeat the exercise, and each time they were beaten within a minute. It was looking pretty pathetic, by all accounts. On the third one, though, they managed to surprise Scott by both of them running away. He caught Danny first, and easily nabbed Stiles.

"Danny, can't you hear me coming at you?" Scott asked as they took a break and drank bottled water from an ice-filled cooler Stiles had borrowed from the police station. "You have a bad tendency to stop and look around."

"You know how I'm deaf in my left ear, right?" Danny asked. Stiles nodded, but Scott cocked an eyebrow and tilted his head in a confused manner. "Scott, remember when we were in middle school and we had that explosion in the science lab?"

"Sorry about that, by the way," Stiles interrupted.

Danny waved him off and continued. "Anyway, ever since then I've lost complete hearing in my left ear and only have 80% in my right. That's why coach has me play defence. My coordination is off and I can't throw for shit."

"Wait, you can't walk in a straight line and I was STILL benched most of last season?!"

"Shut up, Stiles," Scott said as he threw an empty bottle at him. "So you have hearing problems. Why did you stop when I chased you? You seem to be able to listen to coach on the field."

"That is two years of practise, Scott. We all know what coach is gonna yell three seconds before he does. What you probably don't know is that Single-Sided Deafness, that's what it's called, it messes up your perception. You can't hear where people are coming at your from. So when someone yells across the hall at school, I sometimes do that little spin thing to see who it was."

Scott stayed silent for about a minute. Neither he nor Stiles had known that. Nobody had, really.

"So, you can't get hearing aids or anything?" Stiles asked.

"Tried them one summer. Nada. Honestly, I've adjusted," Danny answered. "Can we talk about something else? This is kinda of pointless."

"Well work with it next time," Scott told him. He pulled out his phone and checked the time. "We should probably leave. Stiles, can you clean up? And don't just throw everything in the hole like last time. Derek nearly bit my head off."

"I hate how becoming a werewolf makes everyone Planeteers," Stiles whined as he grabbed the bottles on the floor.

As they were walking out the door, Stiles heard Danny ask Scott what a Planeteer was. Scott didn't know.

TW

"So do you have time to be my friend or are you busy being reunited with your one true love?" Lydia asked as she slammed her locker shut.

"I think I spent more time with Scott when we were sneaking around," Allison groaned as she realized she'd left her math book and the homework due that day at home. "Can I copy your answers? Mine aren't here right now."

Lydia popped open her math book and handed it to Allison. "I need that back at lunch. You are so lucky we don't have Algebra together."

"So I keep telling myself. It's nice to not be the second smartest person in at least one class," Allison replied with a smile. "You wanna come over tonight and hang? Dad is out of town on some work. Yes, an actual job event. I'm as shocked as you are."

"Are you going to leave me the moment Scott calls?" Lydia pouted.

Allison shook her head. "Depends on what he calls about, I guess. In the meantime, I figure we can get some quality girl time."

"Does girl time involve throwing knives and guns?"

"Yes to the knives. Dad keeps an ammo log, so you'll have to hold off on that Lara Croft cosplay," Allison laughed.


	2. Chapter 2

"Do we have anything on the occult?" The librarian asked, as if he didn't understand the question. "Do you mean like Twilight?"

"I mean, like, books about the history of witches and werewolves and stuff," Danny clarified as he fidgeted.

"We don't. We're a school library, and my name isn't Rupert Giles."

"Who is that?"

Danny walked away from the circulation desk and sat down at a table with his laptop. All he could find about werewolves was basic information and bad fanfiction. There was nothing about that Kanima thing Scott told him about, either. The only people who seemed to have any answers were the same ones who were inspiring all of his questions and he honestly didn't trust any of them.

Out of the corner of his eye, Danny watched Scott and their teammate Isaac trading comics and laughing. After learning about the existence of werewolves, it didn't take Danny long to figure out who in the school was one. They seemed to almost be set apart from the rest of the populace if you knew what to look for.

TW

"This is a halberd. It's not used much anymore, but since you don't have a gun license and my dad would kill me if I gave you one of ours, it's best to start you out slow," Allison said as she showed the pole weapon to Lydia. "Since you're new to this, though, we're going to start you off with a bo staff."

"bo staff? You don't trust me with a stick with a knife duct taped on the end?" Lydia complained as Allison tossed her an unadorned wooden staff.

"No, I don't," Allison answered simply as she grabbed her own staff and readied her pose. "I want you to learn from my mistakes. Lethal force should be a last resort."

Allison guided Lydia through how to hold the weapon, what stances offer the best offensive and defensive strikes, and how to assemble one that could be broken down into a more easily concealed form.

"The great thing about wooden arrows is that they can't be picked up by metal detectors," Allison explained. "And neither will one of these."

"So that's why you use a crossbow."

"That and my dad won't let use a gun, either," Allison smirked.

"Ass," Lydia laughed as she packed her disassembled staff into her backpack. "Thanks."

"Not a problem."

TW

Stiles watched his best friend watch someone else. The fact that it was their secret new compatriot only made him more nervous. He'd been the one to help Scott through his werewolf and Allison troubles, and the fact that he wasn't telling him anything about the Danny situation beyond it existing worried him. The last time something like that happened Scott was working with, and against, Allison's crazy grandfather. It did not go well.

"Sucks that lacrosse season is over, huh?" Allison asked as she sat beside her boyfriend in the school's cafeteria. "So, what were you up to last night that was so important?"

"Where were you during home room?" Scott asked as he turned his head to look at her. "Lydia crying in the bathroom again?"

"...something like that," she answered evasively.

People assumed he was dumb, but Stiles knew how to read people and he could tell that Scott and Allison were keeping secrets from each other. He didn't like it. When people kept secrets in Beacon Hills, other people usually died.

"So... what's the plan for tonight? Looking for Erica and Boyd, or you two ditching me to go make out?" Stiles asked after a minute of uncomfortable silence. Neither answered. "Okay, then. I'm gonna leave you two here to brood while I go do something interesting."

Scott looked at the floor as Allison looked at the ceiling. He had packed his lunch but left it in his locker. She had bought her but wasn't touching it. After a long sigh, Scott finally looked up. He didn't look at Allison.

"She killed herself because of me."

Allison blinked but kept her eyes on the ceiling. "Scott, please don't. Derek bit her, not you."

"Derek bit her while saving me. She was killing me and he saved me. She found out about us from my mom," he confessed.

"What am I supposed to do with that, Scott? Hate my mother? Stop hating Derek?" Allison growled as she moved around the mashed potatoes on her tray. "At the end of the day, my mother is still dead and my dad still won't talk to anyone."

Neither one said anything further. Allison got up and walked away, leaving her uneaten food on the table. Scott stood up and walked to another table where someone else sat alone.

"She can't know," Scott told Danny. "None of them can know why we killed Jackson."

"I told you that," Danny all but whispered. If he hadn't had his wolf hearing, Scott doubted he would have heard him. "They can't know that we killed all of them. Can you imagine what they would do? Not just to you, but to me."

"Nobody is going to find out about you, Danny. I promise. I haven't even told Stiles what happened."

Danny shook his head. "But you told him something happened, and he won't stop until he finds out what."

Scott grabbed Danny's hand. "Listen to me, nobody is going to find out. There is so much weird stuff going on that it's impossible to trace it back to you."

Looking into Scott's eyes, Danny managed a weary smile. "It's nice of you to try, but we both know that you can't keep a promise like that. Someone will figure it out eventually."

"Someone already has."

Both boys looked up to see Lydia standing at the end of the table. Her arms were folded and her nostrils flared.

"What did you hear?" Scott asked meekly.

"I know you brought them back, Danny. And I know you killed them, Scott. I know it all."

Danny let go of Scott's hand and stood up. "We shouldn't be doing this. Not here."

"Tonight, then," Lydia ordered. "I'll text you where and when. No Stiles or Allison."

TW

"She's late," Danny said as they waited at the ice rink. "She's late and this is a weird place to meet."

"It's not that weird," Scott told him. "We came here once. Lydia had a freakout on an epic scale."

Before he could explain just what it was that happened, Lydia opened the door to the rink. She glanced around before shutting the door. "If I find out you two brought anyone else here..."

"It's just us, I promise."

The three sat in the bleachers. Lydia made sure to sit a row ahead of them. "I don't know if Scott told you, Danny, but I have a special relationship with the undead."

"Werewolves aren't the undead. That's, like, vampires and stuff," Danny said before being shushed.

"It's also zombies. Lycanthropy is a disease, I know. I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about how so many of the graves in town look like they were dug up. From the inside," Lydia said as she stared at the ice. "Allison's father and the police both think it was either Derek Hale's pack or grave robbers, respectively. But I know you two did it. What I don't know is what it was."

"How do you know?" Danny asked. "How do you know we did anything?"

"Because I know that Jackson died twice. When he came back after being hit by Stiles' car, he came back wrong. And that's why you killed him, Danny. And you had Scott help you with the rest."

Scott covered his face and sighed into his hands. Of all times, Lydia would pick now to be lucid intelligent.

"It's called the Necrostone and it's a family heirloom," Danny confessed. "It's supposed to bring anyone that died an unnatural death back to life. I guess that includes werewolf victims. I only used it the one time."

"Why did you use it?" Lydia asked quietly. "Where is it now?"

Scott cleared his throat. "I took care of it, Lydia. And you don't have to know why Danny used it. Just that he did. Now how did you know about us?"

"I saw you snap Allison's mom's neck, Scott. Weeks after they buried her, you broke her neck and dragged her back to the cemetery."

"He had no choice," Danny said in a pleading voice. "Like you said, Jackson came back wrong. And so did everyone else. You just didn't notice the others because they were trapped underground for days."

"So, what, they were mindless zombies? Then why wasn't Jackson? Why did you kill him?" Lydia's voice broke, but her composure did not.

"Because it wasn't Jackson," Scott answered so Danny wouldn't. "It was Jackson's body. It was his voice, his memories, but it wasn't him."

"And how do you know that?!" Lydia screamed as she slammed her fists onto the chair. Danny was crying and unable to say anything.

Closing his eyes, Scott swallowed the lump in his throat. "We know because Jackson tried to kill Danny. I happened to be in the area, but whatever was in Jackson's body overpowered me easily. Danny killed him by stabbing him in the neck and severing the spinal cord."

Danny was sobbing and rocking back and forth. Scott put a hand on his shoulder which Danny latched onto with his both of his own.

"So, how do you know it wasn't just the Kamina coming back?" Lydia asked in a quiet voice as her eyes bore into the back of Danny's head. "Whatever happened to your not killing mantra, Scott?"

Scott didn't answer because he didn't have one.

"Can you at least tell me about the Necrostone?"

"That's not it's real name. We don't know what it's real name is," Scott answered since he knew this one. "It was the name of an artifact in a comic book. It seemed to fit the situation."

"The situation is zombies and murder, Scott. A comic book? Really?" Lydia scoffed as she blinked away tears. "Do you know if you killed them all?"

"It's not murder, Lydia. These aren't people. They're something else."

"Do you even know if it's stopped, Scott? Danny? Are more people going to 'come back wrong'?" Lydia asked as she stood up. "What the hell did you do, you idiots?"

She stormed out of the bleachers, but stopped when she reached the floor. "I'm not telling Allison. Yet. The last thing she needs is to find out you've ruined her life even more."

Lydia left the ice skating rink, slamming the door behind her. Scott just cursed himself as he held a crying Danny.


	3. Chapter 3

Allison easily dodged Lydia's awkward kick and smoothly ripped the bo staff from her hands. "You're not concentrating."

"Sorry. Things have been weird," Lydia said as she stretched. "Without mentioning anything with a Y chromosome, how have you been?"

"Stagnant" she answered as she began shadowboxing. "It seems like I'm so used to big drama that I don't know how to function without it anymore. And the house is so quiet all the time."

"You know, you can stay at my place any time. My parents would totally be fine with it."

"Your parents, no offence, have been really weird ever since the running naked through the woods thing. I'll pass. Dad and I..."

"No Y chromosomes!" Lydia shouted as she made shushed Allison. "We need a girls night out that doesn't involve weapons or homework or moping over boys. Are you free Saturday?"

"Actually I have a date with Sco..." Allison started before laughing. "I can cancel my plans this once since he's been cancelling on me left and right the last few weeks."

Lydia didn't say anything. She just looked off to the side for a split second before smiling and hugging her best friend.

"Do you just want to call it a night and go veg on the couch and watch bad teen melodramas?" Allison asked as she began putting away the training equipment scattered around the garage.

"Sure. What braincells you didn't kill by kicking me in the head eight hundred times would love death by terrible acting."

TW

All Scott could think about was how weird things had been the night before. He pretty much ignored Stiles and Allison all through school, and Danny was on his way to his house to talk about Lydia. His mom was working and Derek was too busy trying to find his missing pack members to care about what "the traitor" was up to.

He searched the internet for anything about stones that could raise the dead, but all he found anywhere close to what he was looking for was voodoo zombies. He bookmarked a few sites just in case, but Danny's family was from the Pacific Islands, not the Tropic of Cancer. It was doubtful a religion tied to the Atlantic Ocean and New Orleans was involved in a Hawaiian artifact.

Scott heard the steps before the doorbell rang. He bounded down the stairs with a speed that humans would have to work years to achieve. He almost slammed the door shut when he saw that Danny wasn't alone.

"Hello, Scott. So nice to see you again," Derek's uncle said as he casually tossed Danny through the doorway by the collar of his shirt. "My nephew sends his best wishes."

"How goes the search for Boyd and Erica? Anything?" Scott asked as he helped Danny up, careful to keep one eye trained on Peter. "I'm a little surprised that Derek would let you out of his sight, since he doesn't trust you nearly as far as he can throw you."

"See, that's the thing, Scott: you don't get that kind of information from anyone but the Alpha of a pack. Especially after your subterfuge was revealed. Derek is still upset," Peter answered with a smarmy grin. "No, I'm here on his behalf. He wants to know why you and your little friend here have been spending so much time at our familial home and in the graveyard."

"You can tell Derek that any questions he has he needs to ask me himself," Scott growled after shifting halfway into wolf mode. "Now get out of my house before I throw you out."

"We both know that you wouldn't be able to do that, Scott. I may be just a Beta, but I'm older and stronger and more experienced than you are," Peter bowed. "But I'll happily deliver your message. Anything else I should tell my darling nephew?"

Scott thought for a moment, but Danny was the one to speak up. "Actually, no, but I have a question for you."

Cocking his head curiously, Peter looked at Scott and ignored Danny. "Why is your friend talking to me without a proper introduction, Scott?"

"Danny, this is Derek Hale's evil Uncle Peter. Peter, this is my friend Danny. Touch him and I'll kill you."

Peter just smiled as his eyes lingered on Danny. "I would never dream of cavorting about with a mongrel from another pack, Scott. That pleasure is all yours."

"Huh?" Scott asked, confused. "What are you talking about? I don't have a pack."

"Not an official one, no, but you're an odd Omega, Scott. Most of them don't hang about with humans."

Stomping his foot to get the attention of the two wolves, Danny looked immediately like he regretted it as soon as Peter looked at him.

"Yes, young man?"

Standing as tall as he could, Danny did his best to look Peter in the eye. "If you're this Derek guy's uncle, then you're the one who came back from the dead. How did you do it?"

"You want to know the secrets of magic, little one?" Peter asked as he sauntered up to Danny, his face inches from the boy's. He breathed heavily in his face, smiling as he sniffed him. "There are things that man is not meant to know."

"What about me?" Scott asked as he grabbed Peter by the arm and pulled him away from Danny. He made sure to dig his claws in a little tighter than necessary.

With a flourished bow, Peter pulled out of Scott's grip and stepped onto Scott's porch. "I'll tell you two things, Scott. If you want me to talk you should really talk to my nephew."

"And the second thing?" Scott asked as he crossed his arms.

"Make sure your lap dogs know their place. I might not be so friendly next time."

Peter shifted into full wolf mode and ran off into the dark night. Scott watched him until he rounded a corner, then slammed the door and turned to Danny.

"Hey, man, are you okay?" He asked as he walked Danny to the living room. He sat the silent Danny on the sofa and walked to the kitchen. He retrieved a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water. "Do you need any ice?"

Danny didn't answer, so Scott brought him the lukewarm water and set it on a coaster on the table. Peter may have been scary and threatening, but Scott knew his mother would kill him for leaving water rings on the furniture.

"How do you do this? How does Stiles do this?" Danny asked in a raspy voice as he grabbed the water with a trembling hand. "How do you look people in the eye that would kill you without blinking and not crumble?"

Scott put one arm around Danny's shoulder and the other on his knee. "I do crumble. A lot. I just wait until they leave to do it. Hell, my girlfriend's entire family wanted me dead three months ago."

"I think he might know something, Scott. If he came back from the dead like you told me he did, then he knows something. And we have to find out if he knows anything about the Necrostone."

"We will, Danny, but first we have to figure out what we're going to do about Lydia," Scott reminded him. "She knows all about what we've been doing. And I really don't want her to tell Allison or Allison's dad."

With a growing aura of confidence, Danny smiled and hugged Scott. "You idiot, we're going to tell her what happened tonight. We're going to tell Lydia everything. And we're going to ask her to help us."

Scott awkwardly put his arms around Danny. As he stifled a choke on the scent of Danny's Armani cologne, he felt one more thing click in his head. Something Peter had alluded to and he hadn't picked up on.

"Danny." Scott said as he broke the hug.

"Yeah?" Danny asked as he finally took a drink of the water Scott had handed him.

Putting a hand on Danny's thigh, Scott leaned in and breathed deeply. "I can taste it, you know."

"Know what?" Danny asked as he leaned back.

Then Scott kissed him. It was awkward, unpleasant, and both knew it was a bad idea. Danny dropped his glass of water on the sofa. Scott ignored his damp pants as he leaned further into the kiss. His senses started to leave him until all he could smell was the pheromones Danny was emitting and taste the Blistex Danny had put on earlier that evening.

Pushing Scott off, Danny stood up and walked into the kitchen. Knowing to give him distance, Scott instead turned his attention to the spilled water all over the sofa. He grabbed the glass and put it on the coaster on the table. Then he commenced to flipping the cushions in the hopes that his mother wouldn't notice.

"Dammit." Scott cursed himself as he thought of Allison. He knelt onto the floor and put his head into an accent pillow and screamed. He'd lost control and had been running off animalistic lust.

"Scott?" Danny's voice was small and Scott looked up to see him staring from around the corner in fear.

"It's okay." Scott assured him before sitting down on the arm of the sofa. He ran his hand through his hair and continued mentally cursing himself. "It's not okay. I have a girlfriend."

"And I'm a guy," Danny said as he remained half-hidden by the wall. Scott wasn't sure if Danny was reminding him or asking him.

"That, too. We can't do this tonight. Danny. I have to go. You can stay if you want. I have to go."

Danny eased himself around the corner and into the living, but maintained a healthy distance between himself and Scott. "You already said that. If you're confused or anything, I'm here to talk."

"No offence, Danny, but you're kind of the last person I want to talk to right now."

"Understandable," Danny agreed before Scott bolted out the door.

TW

Stiles just sat on his bed and watched Scott pace a hole in his floor as he muttered to himself. He didn't need to ask what happened, because whenever Scott got like this it was usually about Allison. He got more worked up over that girl than he did the various people and monsters trying to kill them.

"Dude, just apologize to her and stop trying to dig a hole to China in my bedroom," Stiles finally said as he threw a pillow at Scott. The action seemed to have snapped his friend out of his stupor.

Sitting in the swivelling office chair, Scott spun around a few times before settling into what could barely pass as a comfortable position. He said nothing for several minutes. Scott smacked himself in the forehead once before looking at Stiles.

"You're the werewolf expert. Does this increase my sex drive or something? Did that bite make me super horny? Or is it time for the full moon already? Because I thought that was still a few weeks away." Scott continued rambling before Stiles threw another pillow at him to shut him up.

"What did you do?" Stiles scooted to the edge of the bed and did his best to look Scott in the face, which was difficult since Scott was doing everything in his power to look anywhere but at his friend. "Scott, tell me, what did you do?"

"I made out with someone that isn't Allison," Scott half whispered before hiding his face in his hands.

Stiles absorbed this information for about half a second before jumping to his feet. "Was it Lydia again? I swear, Scott, if you did this to me again I'm going to kick your ass."

"It wasn't Lydia, Stiles. I wouldn't do that to you," Scott declared as he looked at the floor.

"But you would do it to Allison. That is screwed up, Scott, even for the soap opera you two call a relationship."

"You think I don't know that?" Scott yelled as he slammed his fist on Stiles' desk, causing it to crack. "Err, sorry."

"Step away from the furniture and expensive electronics, Scott. And calm down. Now who was it?"

Scott was quiet for several seconds before offering a non-answer. "It doesn't matter."

"See, I've watched enough cable TV to know that when someone says that it actually does matter. A lot. Who was it, Scott? It's not like we talk to that many girls."

Stiles was shocked to see Scott shut down with one sentence. He played it over in his head and got down on one knee so he could look up into Scott's eyes. They were squeezed shut.

"It wasn't a girl, was it? Scott, dude, was it Danny?" Stiles asked as he shook his friend's leg. "You know you can talk to me."

"Why would you guess Danny?" Scott asked while keeping his eyes shut.

"You two have been spending a lot of time together, and Danny is a good looking guy... Scott, do you think I'm attractive?"

"What?" Scott asked as he finally opened his eyes and looked down at Stiles' upturned face.

Stiles could feel Scott tensing and backed away. "Come on, you know what I mean. I'm not gay, and I don't care if you are, but do you think I'm hot?"

"I am not gay, Stiles, and I'm not answering that question."

"Why not?"

"It's weird."

"And making out with Danny isn't?" Stiles asked as he started primping in his mirror.

Scott cleared his throat and then laughed for the first time that day. "I never said I made out with Danny. Or any guy. And I'm not gay. And you look fine, you dork."

"Thank you for that," Stiles said a smile. "Now, then, are you going to tell Allison that you made out with Danny?"

"Stiles..."

"Fine," he sighed in response. "Are you going to tell your girlfriend that knows ten different ways to kill you that you made out with someone else of an undetermined gender?"

"Do you think I should? I shouldn't. Should I? Because I think the wolf took over, Stiles. I really do."

"Scott, the wolf took over?" Stiles rather seriously.

"I think so."

Stiles sighed and grabbed his cellphone. "This is gonna suck so bad, man."

TW

Stiles pulled his jeep up to the Hale House, wishing every second that he was driving anywhere else. He hated coming here when Scott wanted to do his sadistic training exercises, and that was when he knew he wasn't going to have his head ripped off by a lunatic.

"I see you still don't have car privileges. Your mom still pissed at you for hiding the fangs from her, Scott?" Derek asked with a laugh as scanned the treeline nervously.

"He wanted backup in case you tried something," Stiles answered for his friend. "Look, we just had some questions is all."

Isaac and Peter walked out of the house and stood behind Derek, outnumbering Scott and Stiles. "I'm all for an exchange of information. Why are you and your friends hanging out in my house, Scott?"

"It's secluded and the Argents would never look for anything here. They've written it off as a usual patrolling point," Scott answered simply. "There's something coming, Derek. Something bad. And I think he knows."

Derek looked at Peter and laughed. "Of course he knows, Scott. He's the one who has been helping me prepare for the invading pack. We've already seen at least one of their scouts."

"Invading pack?" Stiles shouted before shaking Scott's arm. "Scott, there's an invading pack. We can barely deal with the ones that don't want us all dead!"

"There's an invading pack?" Scott said in disbelief. "That is so not what I need right now."

"Does that answer your question or are you two going to continue wasting my night?" Derek asked.

Stiles stepped forward and spoke for his friend. "Does the wolf ever take over when it's not the full moon?"

Peter smirked, but it was Derek who laughed and answered. "The wolf isn't like an alternate personality. It's a part of who you are. It doesn't take over so much as you lose control. And Scott here seemed to have gained control. Are you having trouble being a lone wolf?"

"Does the wolf change you?" Stiles pressed further since Scott didn't want to. "Does it change you, you know, sexually?"

"STILES!" Scott shouted as Isaac burst into a giggle fit.

Derek was too busy laughing himself to answer, but Peter calmly walked over to Scott. He ignored Stiles completely. He placed the flat of his index finger under Scott's chin and tilted his head upward so their eyes could meet. "The wolf doesn't change your sexuality. It does heighten it, but being a teenager I don't think it's possible for your sex drive to actually go any higher than it already is. Any feelings or confusion you have you would have had with or without the bite."

"Back away, Pedowolf," Stiles said as he stepped between Scott and Peter. Peter bared his his fangs at Stiles but chuckled in an amused manner. "Scott, let's just get out of here."

Scott didn't want to leave, though. He walked around Stiles and up to Peter. "How did you come back from the dead?"

"You'll have to ask your friend, Lydia, Scotty boy. She's the one who did all the work."

"But it was your plan. How did you do it?" Scott demanded.

Peter pulled him in for a hug and whispered something in Scott's ear. When he let him go, Scott grabbed Stiles by the coat sleeve and told him they needed to leave. Not wanting to stay, Stiles climbed into the jeep and started it. He didn't even buckle up before pulling away from the house.

"So, I guess being a werewolf doesn't make you gay. That's a relief. I don't have anything against gay people, but the last thing I want is for Derek Hale to come onto me. Right, Scott? Scott?"

"Stiles..." Scott muttered as he looked off into the darkness of the night. "I'm not gay, but I am scared."

"Of what?"

"Peter Hale, Stiles. He knows what I've been doing and why."

"Scott?" Stiles stopped the jeep and shook his friend, but it didn't seem to make any difference. "Scott, what have you been doing? You are scaring me a lot more than three creeps ever have."

Scott sounded on the verge of tears as he opened the door to Stiles' jeep. He climbed out without a word and slammed the door. Stiles blinked and his best friend was gone.

TW

Danny opened his front door even though it was late and his parents were bound to be pissed. When he saw Scott, he didn't say a word. Danny stood back and let Scott into his home. "We have to be quiet. My parents go to sleep insanely early and Jackson was the only person they'd let into the house at this hour."

"He knows, Danny. It's not just Lydia. Peter Hale knows, too."

"That werewolf guy? How did he find out?" Danny groaned as he led Scott up the stairs. It wasn't exactly a conversation for the living room. "I know it's weird that we're going to my bedroom, but nothing is going to happen, Scott. Nothing."

"The last thing I'm worried about right now is my rating on the Kinsey Scale, Danny," Scott lied as he followed him. The thought had been in the back of his head the entire night. "There is a sociopath out there who knows what we've been doing with our free time. Did you call Lydia?"

"She's already here, Scott. And she's pissed. She was with Allison when I called. I guess Allison called you and never returned her call."

Allison was not a priority to Scott at that moment, but he didn't want to say it. Danny opened his bedroom door and ushered Scott inside. Lydia was sitting on Danny's bed. Her legs were crossed as were her arms.

"Scott McCall," she hissed as she pointed a finger at him, "you need to tell me what the hell is going on and right now. Danny here wanted to wait until you showed up to tell me. I ditched YOUR girlfriend for this. Something you seem to excel at lately."

"This is a little bigger than high school sweethearts and their relationship problems, Lydia," Danny scolded her as he sat at his desk. Scott just stood awkwardly.

"I know that, you imbecile. Now what development happened in one day that was so important you had to call at ten at night?"

Scott was the one to speak. "Peter Hale knows about everything. The stone, the killings, and that you know. Lydia, I think you two are still bonded."

"So he knows about this conversation?" Lydia gasped.

"I'm counting on it," Scott answered. He walked over to the fish tank on Danny's night stand pulled a black rock out of it. It was smooth, and looked as though it has recently been set into a necklace. "If Peter Hale does know what you know, Lydia, I want him to know that I have the Necrostone and that I want answers or I'm going to destroy it."

"You can't!" Danny exclaimed in a hushed voice. "Scott, if my parents find out I destroyed that they'll kill me!"

"Danny, it's a little past time to worry about that," Scott answered as he pocketed the stone. "Listen, Lydia, please don't say anything about this to Allison. Nobody outside of the three of us and Peter knows anything. Not even Stiles. I'm begging you."

Lydia made a choking motion in Scott's direction and growled, but she agreed. She pointed her finger at Scott again and warned him to treat Allison better or he'd regret before leaving.

"Scott, about Allison. Are you going to tell her?"

"Tell her what, Danny? That you created smart zombies or something and I had to put them all back in the ground? Do you know how ridiculous that is?" Scott protested as he finally sat down on Danny's bed. "Or did you want me to tell her I made a move on you and I don't even know why? Because those are both really bad ideas right now. Really, really bad ideas."

"Scott, if you need to talk, I'm still here. Lots of straight guys experiment. It's cool. Really."

"I'm not having a coming out drama, Danny. If I'm bisexual or whatever I'll deal. I just don't want to hurt Allison."

Danny sat upright and gave Scott a look that seemed to bore right through him. "In all honesty, Scott, I'm more worried about you hurting yourself than I am about you hurting Allison. You have to deal with things. You can't just ignore them."

"I'm dealing, Danny. I've been dealing for months with things that you wouldn't understand, and now I'm cleaning up your mess."

"Forgive me for giving a damn."

Rubbing his face with the palms of his hands, Scott let his shoulders droop and he fell onto his side and stared at Danny from his bed. "I'm sorry. It's been a stressful night. I don't know what to do. I'll figure it out, though. I always figure it out."

Danny looked out his window and sighed. When he looked back at Scott, the other teenager was asleep. Danny tried to wake him up, but couldn't. He assumed it was a werewolf thing and pulled Scott's cellphone from the pocket of his jacket and sent a text to his mom saying he was staying at a friend's house. They'd probably call in sick in the morning after Danny's parents had already left for work and then go see that Peter Hale guy again.

TW

Stiles pulled into his driveway, shaken more than he thought he would be by Scott's abandonment of him in the woods. He'd seen a lot of disturbing things since his best friend was bitten. Scott being so scared that he actually ran away when his first instinct is usually to fight was pretty high up on the list.

His dad wasn't home, so obviously it was going to be a frozen pizza kind of night. Stiles was walking in the front door and debating whether he wanted a cheese or pepperoni pizza when he smelled pasta. It was weird, because neither he nor his father cooked.

"Dad, are you home?" Stiles called out nervously. He grabbed the first thing he could, the shoe on his left foot, and walked into the kitchen. When he saw who was in there, he dropped the shoe.

He'd never seen her in person. He'd only seen pictures as his dad told him she died during childbirth. That he was the miracle baby who kept his wife alive.

"Welcome home, Stiles. I've wanted to meet you for ages, but your father just didn't want me to come home. Didn't you dear?"

Stiles looked and saw that his dad was tied up in the corner of the kitchen with blood trickling from his forehead. When he looked back at the woman who looked just like his dead mother he was greeted with a cast iron skillet to the face.


	4. Chapter 4

It felt shockingly good when Allison's fist connected with Scott's throat. She'd had more pent up anger than she had guessed. Then she slammed her shin into his chin, knocking him onto his back.

"After you've stunned your opponent, you want to disarm him with a stomp to the wrist and kicking it away like this," Allison explained as she crushed Scott's wrist with the heel of her boot. "Then you two run. Any questions?"

"Why do you guys keep telling us to run? I get why Scott can fight, but I'm stronger than you are," Danny asked nervously as he made an obvious attempt to avoid looking at both instructors.

As an answer, Allison threw Scott over her shoulder and held her foot down on his neck. "I've had years of self-defence classes and weapons training because my dad wanted me to be able to take care of myself."

"I have mace," Lydia replied as she held up her key ring. "Look, I'm glad you two talked and we're doing this as a group, but it's all so Buffy. All we're missing is the cranky British librarian."

"Can I get up now?" Scott grunted as he patted Allison's leg. After squeaking out an apology, she grabbed his arm and helped him to his feet.

"Okay, now that you've all seen how to do it, who wants to practice?" Allison asked as she looked at the time on her cell phone. "My dad isn't home until eight tonight, so we have an hour."

"I did not agree to this," Scott weekly protested. Allison didn't listen.

TW

Scott didn't need the ice, and Allison knew he didn't, but he held it to his face anyway. "We've been kind of distant lately."

"We?" Allison raised an eyebrow as she poured herself a glass of milk. "Scott, every time we make plans you cancel them. And the one time I cancel them you don't even acknowledge me. It's getting really old."

"I'm sorry. Danny learned about the whole werewolf thing and I've been busy dealing with that," Scott lied. He didn't want to lie to his girlfriend, but he knew telling her the truth was a horrible idea. "Every time I cancelled a date, it was so I could make sure he didn't blow our cover."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Allison was angry. She slammed the door to her fridge so hard it popped back open. "I thought we were over secrets and lies after what happened with my grandfather."

"I'm sorry. My first instinct was to protect you. I wanted to tell you, but not until I was sure what things were like."

Allison reached into another cabinet and retrieved a package of cookies. She slapped Scott's hand when he reached for one. "No. This is your punishment for lying to me. I can take care of myself, Scott. You should know this by now. I'm tired of you and my dad trying to redefine me into someone that needs to be protected from everything."

"I'll try to keep you in the loop from now on. I promise." Scott had no intention of keeping this promise. He mentally kicked himself before having an idea. "Hey, Allison, do you still have your grandfather's stuff here? Like, his books?"

She looked at him quizzically but nodded in affirmation. "What is it, Scott? Is there another were-creature running around?"

"No, I just want some answers on an old mystery. We never did find out how Peter Hale came back from the dead beyond Lydia's involvement. Can you see if your grandfather had anything about resurrection in his books and notes?"

"I guess. It would be easier if I had your help."

"I would, but I'm busy tonight. Thanks!" Scott gave Allison a quick kiss before grabbing his jacket and bolting out the door.

With an exasperated groan, Allison threw the cookie she was eating into the garbage can and took her glass of milk upstairs.

TW

Stiles stared at his dad who was staring at his mom. He hadn't eaten in hours and he'd already pissed himself once. That was something that TV and movies conveniently left out when they had people tied up for days.

Why hadn't Scott or somebody from the station stopped by? The woman who looked just like his dead mother had cooked all through the night and dumped the food into the garbage as soon as she had finished it. The radio loudly played old rock music and the woman sang along with it.

There was a knock on the door that gave Stiles hope. His mother's lookalike happily walked to the door humming a nursery rhyme. "Hello. Welcome to the Stilinski home. Who are you?"

"Hi, my name is Lydia Martin. I'm here to see Stiles. Are you the cleaning lady?"

His heart sank and he started slamming his head against the wall to try to signal to Lydia that it wasn't safe.

"No, of course not. I'm Mrs. Stilinski. I just got home last night from an extended vacation. Would you like to come in?"

"I just need to see Stiles. Is he home?" Lydia answered.

Stiles had stopped pounding his head when his vision started blurring and had gone back into struggling against his bonds. He didn't understand why his father seemed to be almost catatonic.

"Stiles isn't feeling well right now, dear. Can I take a message?"

"Yeah," Lydia answered. Stiles heard the jingle of keys. "Remind him that the crazy bitch knows a zombie when she sees one."

His mother let out an unearthly scream and there was the sound of glass breaking. Stiles saw Lydia run into the living room, his mother stumbling after her and vigorously wiping her eyes. There was the sound of a struggle and wood cracking. Scott heard Lydia scream and more glass breaking.

He saw the woman posing as his mother flying through the doorway and land on her back. Lydia ran into the kitchen wielding a table leg. She cracked Stiles' mom across the chin with it before seeing Stiles tied up in the corner.

"I am so glad I was right, because this would be really awkward otherwise." Lydia smacked the table leg into Stiles' mom's face one more time before throwing it out of the room and grabbing a knife from the counter.

Lydia pulled Stiles' gag out of his mouth and set to hacking away at his bindings.

"Who the hell is that? You mom is dead, right?" Lydia asked as she moved from Stiles' wrists to his feet. "I mean, I'm pretty sure you said she's dead."

"She is. Or that's what my dad told me," Stiles answered weakly. He was too tired to move. Beyond the initial blackout, he hadn't slept. "She looks so much like her, though. Well, like her pictures."

After finishing with Stiles, Lydia checked to make sure the woman was still unconscious before moving onto his dad. She'd seen too many movies where someone thought they'd knocked the killer unconscious just to die two minutes later.

"Sheriff Stilinski, are you okay? Can you talk?" Lydia asked as she pulled out the dirty rag stuffed into his mouth.

He didn't say a word. He just slowly blinked and kept his eyes fixated on the doppelganger of his dead wife.

"Stiles, I think he's in shock," Lydia said as she pulled out her phone and began to dial her phone. She handed the knife to Stiles and stood over the woman. When the person on the other end of the call answered, her voice went into a whisper. "Danny, you need to get your ass over to the Stilinski house right now."

TW

Scott waited at the Hale House. He could feel the Necrostone in his jacket pocket. He wasn't sure if it was his subconscious or what, but he could've sworn it was warm. The stone was cool to the touch when he reached in and felt it.

There was an eerie silence that hung over the burnt out old homestead. Every other time Scott had been there, something really bad was going down and it was loud and noisy. The feeling that something big was happening stayed at the back of his mind. Whether Peter showed up or not, Scott was already spooked.

It was eleven o'clock before Scott finally saw another soul, but it wasn't Peter. Derek calmly walked into his old familial home and held his arms out. "What do you want, Scott? Why are you here?"

"I'm supposed to be meeting your uncle, Derek," Scott replied firmly. "Why are you here? Where is Peter?"

"That's the thing. After our little run-in last night he disappeared. I can't track him. It's like he vanished off the face of the Earth and I think you know why. You've been weirder than usual. What is going on?"

"Derek, do you know anything about the undead?"

"You mean, like, zombies and vampires and stuff? Yeah, I know that Hollywood is obsessed with them."

Scott laughed. It was needed. "I was thinking more along the lines of your less-than-dead uncle. You're the werewolf expert that doesn't want to shoot things in the head immediately. How did he come back?"

"I don't know, Scott. You think I haven't asked him? He won't spill."

"But you're the Alpha," Scott reasoned. He'd played his cards too early when he spilled that he knew about Lydia's connection Peter, and he'd spooked the one person who had answers.

"Yeah, and that apparently means nothing. It's not like you didn't have your own secret agenda when you were in my pack, Scott," Derek pointed out. When Scott had no rebuttal, Derek shrugged and started to leave. He stopped in the doorway. "Oh, and Scott, I need you and your friends to stop coming here. You can do what you want anywhere else, but this is still my family's home and I need you to respect that."

TW

Allison had pored through every book and journal in her grandfather's collection and the only thing she could find about raising the dead involved voodoo. That seemed unlikely to be the case with Peter Hale, since he clearly retained his own faculties and wasn't under someone's thrall. Nonetheless, Allison noted them and set them off to the side.

She sent Scott a text letting him know what she had found, but she didn't expect a response. It seemed less like they were dating and more like they were business partners. Scott McCall might as well be a silent partner.

When she heard the sound of the front door, Allison grabbed the books she needed and quietly slipped out of the room. She used her stealth training to silently walk to her own room and set the books under her desk.

"Daddy, is that you?" She called out.

"Who else would it be?" He stood at the bottom of the stairs. There was a large smile on his face. It was the first time Allison had seen him smile since her mom died.

Her feet hit the stairs and and she practically jumped into her dad's arms again like a little girl when she reached the bottom. He caught her and gave her a bear hug, laughing in her ear.

"What brought this on?" He asked with a laugh in his voice. "You haven't done that since you were seven."

Allison didn't say anything. She was just so happy to see her father happy. He sat her down on her feet and leaned against the wall. He let out a whistle and waved a hand.

"Hey, Ally!" a woman called out as she walked into the house. She was as tall as Chris Argent, with short red hair that might've been frizzy if it were allowed to grow. "How is my favourite cousin?"

"I didn't know you were coming, Rory!" Allison gushed as she hugged the 20something. "How are Uncle Andrew and Aunt Cecily?"

"You know, getting stoned and planting pineapples. They have some weird communes in Arizona."

"Can pineapples grow in the desert?" Chris Argent asked asked he ruffled his niece's hair.

"I don't think so, but you explain that to a bunch of wacked out hippies," Rory giggled. "I would've come out for the funeral, but I had finals to deal with. Are you guys doing okay?"

With that, Allison watched as her father's smile fell away. Thankfully, her cousin hadn't noticed. "Thanks, Rory. We're doing okay. The flowers you sent were nice. We weren't expecting you, so the guest room is kind of a mess. Dad, do you mind keeping Rory company while I clean up?"

"I can crash on the couch, Ally," Rory assured her cousin. "Trust me, a broke college student learns to sleep on anything. Besides, I thought your grandfather was staying in the guest room. Aunt Victoria mentioned that he was here the last time I talked to her."

A quiet fell over the house. Allison was sure Rory would think it was because she'd mentioned her mother's name, but in truth the Argents and the other hunters had done their best to cover up her grandfather's disappearance. Nobody knew where his body had gone to after the Hales had killed him, if he was even dead.

"He left on an urgent matter," Allison's dad explained. "He left a lot of his stuff here. Someone is supposed to come for it soon, so we just left it alone. Allison is right, though. We need to get that cleaned up. How about I take care of it and you two girls catch up? You can go to a movie or something."

"Dad, it's late. The theatre is closed and you have work in the morning." Allison reasoned. She didn't want to run the risk of him noticing anything was missing. "Go to bed. I've got this. Rory, there's a frozen pizza you can put in the oven."

"Was she always this bossy?" Rory asked her uncle as Allison pushed her father to the stairs.

"Pizza. Now!" Allison ordered. Her dad just shrugged and complied.

TW

"You need to tell me what the hell is going on!" Lydia shouted as she pointed at the bound and gagged woman lying unconscious on the kitchen floor. Stiles was upstairs with his not-quite-aware father. "Danny, what the hell have you started? I stop by to see why Stiles wasn't at werewolf boot camp and I find this crazy woman holding those two hostage."

"What part of 'I don't know' is so hard to understand?" Danny yelled back in her face. "You know everything I know. She looks just like those pictures of Stiles' mother we he showed us back in elementary school."

Lydia stomped her foot and punched the wall. "Your damn rock did this. Scott had better be getting some answers from Peter Hale or I'm gonna start killing people. I think I'm going to start with you, Danny Mahealani."

"I'm going to call Scott, see if he has anything," Danny told her. It was more to get away from Lydia than actual concern, but he reasoned that Scott probably needed to know that his best friend's dead mother was back. Unlike Allison's mother, though, they wouldn't be able to keep this one under wraps.

Danny walked into the backyard called Scott's phone but it went straight to voice mail. He just left a message that Scott needed to stop by Stiles' house as soon as he could.

"So, weird night," Stiles said as he slapped Danny on the back. Danny was surprised he hadn't heard him coming.

"You aren't as weirded out as I thought you'd be when Lydia called," Danny confessed. "I mean, that could be your mom in there."

Stiles stared at his fingers. "That's the thing about your mother dying during childbirth: there's no real relationship. I mean, yeah, I had the pictures and dreams of what she might be, but at the end of the day there's no real person. So as long as I remind myself that isn't really my mom in there that tried to kill me I'm okay. The thing that I most want to know right now is why Lydia called you."

"Huh?" Danny played dumb as he scratched the back of neck.

"You know, she could've called Scott or something, but instead she called the new guy. It's weird."

"Scott is busy playing with the Hales or something," Danny half-lied. "He mentioned it at werewolf boot camp."

"What?" Stiles sat in a lawn chair and stared at Danny. "What in the world is werewolf boot camp?"

"Allison and Scott are teaching us how to throw down with the big baddies out there. You didn't show today, which is why Lydia came over. She didn't tell you?"

"I was kind of busy being tied up by a crazy woman," Stiles offered as he pointed to the bruises on his face. "Besides, I'm still mad at you."

It was Danny's turn to be confused. "Why are you mad at me?"

Stiles smirked as he leaned forward in his chair. "Because of all the straight guys in Beacon Hills, you made out with Scott instead of me."

"He told you?" Danny asked as his eyes widened.

"Whoa. What? That actually happened? I was kidding!" Stiles exclaimed before looking thoughtful. "I knew he was gay. He should've just been honest with me."

Danny slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand and grabbed the seat next to Stiles. "Look, dude, don't tell anyone. Scott's not gay. He's just confused. And you can't tell Allison. Nothing happened."

Snapping his fingers, Stiles started shaking his finger in Danny's face. "It all makes so much sense now: the late nights, the whispering in study hall, the longing looks. You turned Scott gay. I'm not judging. If anyone made me gay I'd want it to be you, but hey."

"You need to stop," Danny commanded. "Listen, I know you're trying to not pay attention to what you just went through, but you seriously can't tell Scott you know this. Let me tell him. And try not to be so YOU about it."

"Yes, Sir!" Stiles saluted.

As much as he wanted to, Danny couldn't write off Stiles bizarre behaviour to PTSD. There had to be a reason that he would even joke about Scott. At least he wasn't questioning how the woman who looked just like his mother came to be in his house. Though, it was weird that he wasn't doing that.

That was Stiles' mother lying on the floor being guarded by Lydia. Danny was sure of it. The question was what they were going to do about her. Even if they got lucky and the Sheriff blocked it all out, there was still the matter of Stiles who probably wouldn't let them kill her. Again. It was a mess and Danny had no idea how to fix it. He was so sure they'd put down all those revived when he used the stone, and that it only applied to unnatural deaths. How was dying from giving birth unnatural?

"You two should get in here," Lydia called from the back door. "She's starting to wake up."

The two boys stood up and walked in together. Danny locked the door behind him.

Lydia double checked the bindings to make sure she couldn't get free before ordering Stiles out of the room.

"Why me? I'm the one whose mother she's impersonating," Stiles complained.

"Someone needs to make sure your dad doesn't come down here, and I don't want you to be here if it gets ugly. Now go!" Lydia said as she pushed him out of the kitchen. Stiles grumbled a few unintelligible complaints but left. Lydia grabbed a knife from the block on the counter and held it to the woman's throat as she ripped the gag from her mouth. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing in this house. And don't even try to tell me that you live here because I know better."

Danny was legitimately scared. The Lydia he knew was always a little cold and hard, but this wasn't the girl he knew at all. Ever since she went crazy, and especially after Jackson died, she'd become distant. The ruthlessness he saw on display in the kitchen was unlike anything he'd ever seen.

"You two aren't that different," Stiles' mother answered in a hollow voice at her eyes darted between Danny and Lydia. "You both brought the dead back to life. The only difference is that she made sure to bring the right one back."

After winking at Danny, Stiles' mom jerked against Lydia and impaled her throat on the knife. Lydia screamed as a geyser of blood hit her in the face. Danny pulled her out of the line of fire and watched as the blood sprayed against the wall and counters. He yelled for Stiles while pulling his phone out of his pocket and called Scott again. All he got was the voice mail.

Every time he thought he was adjusting to his new way of life, something would slap Danny in the face and remind him that he had no idea what he was doing and neither did anybody else.

"What did you guys do?" Stiles yelled when he saw the carnage and a blood-soaked Lydia crying into Danny's shirt. "What the hell did you do?"


	5. Chapter 5

"Is that who I think it is?" Scott asked as he walked into Stiles' kitchen. Danny nervously nodded in the affirmative. Lydia was sitting in the living room. Scott could hear her apologizing to Stiles over and over again. He gingerly stepped over the corpse and looked at them. Lydia was wearing a pair of Stiles sweatpants and one of his lacrosse jerseys. She was lying on the sofa, her head in Stiles' lap. He was running his hands through her damp hair.

"I had to help her with the shower," Danny explained as he pulled Scott back into the kitchen. The blood had already congealed and looked more black than red. "She was a mess, Scott. She hasn't told anyone anything. Yet. It was an accident."

"Unlike what we've been doing," Scott sighed as he leaned against Danny. They were in way over their heads. "What do we do with her? I mean, that is Stiles' mom's body. It smells like her."

Danny blinked in surprise. "How do you know what she smells like?"

"Stiles dad still has her clothes hanging in his closet. She's been dead over fifteen years, and he still has her clothes. Does he know?" Scott wanted to vomit. He'd never met the woman. When his dad left, Stiles' dad had become like a second father. How could he handle telling him that his wife had died a second time?

"We're not sure. He's been in some sort of weird trance," Danny answered.

Scott felt Danny drape his arm around his shoulders. It was probably an unconscious act, but Scott didn't mind. Any human contact at that moment would only help. He breathed deeply the scent of Armani in the hopes it would block out Mrs. Stilinski's blood, but it did no good.

"Hey, Scott," Lydia said with a tiny wave as she walked into the kitchen. She was holding onto Stiles' arm to steady herself. Scott noticed she was barefoot. "I see Danny finally got a hold of you."

"In more ways than one," Stiles added in a monotone voice.

Danny stepped away as Scott shrugged his shoulders. Lydia looked at them but said nothing.

"They wouldn't tell me anything, Scott. Who is this woman? Is there some kind of shape shifting werewolf curse?" Stiles asked as he stared at the dead body on his kitchen floor. "I need to know how to explain all of the bloodstains on the walls to my dad."

"I screwed up. Bad," Danny confessed.

Scott wanted to step up and claim responsibility. He wanted to pull Danny aside and talk him out of what he was about to do. He wanted to bolt from the room and never look back. Instead, all Scott McCall did was lean against the wall and avoid looking at anyone else in the room.

"Danny, no offence, but you're pretty new to this whole thing. See, you don't have magical abilities to raise the dead and you didn't stab anybody," Stiles said. Scott heard Lydia flinch, but Stiles continued. "So, again, no offence, but I find it hard to believe that you have anything to do with, well, anything."

"Do you still have it, Scott?" Danny asked.

Reluctantly, Scott looked up at his friend and saw the pained pleading in his eyes. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the stone. It looked so insignificant and unimportant that for a second Scott doubted it really had any involvement in anything that had happened the last several weeks.

"It's a rock," Stiles said blankly.

"It's how she came back, Stiles," Scott replied with significant effort. The fact that honesty was becoming difficult was one that worried him. "That is your mother's body, but she wasn't in it."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Stiles voice was low and filled with anger. "Are you saying you actually killed my mom?"

"She was going to kill you first," Lydia offered. Nobody acknowledged what she said.

Taking the stone from Scott's outstretch hand, Danny sat it on the counter. "It's true, Stiles. I brought her back accidentally. I brought a lot of people back. Scott is the one who helped me keep it covered up."

In a fit of rage, Stiles threw Lydia off and charged across the room and punched Danny in the jaw. Scott grabbed Stiles from behind and held him back. It didn't stop Stiles from screaming at the room.

"You assholes don't get to do this! You don't get to play games like this. I don't even know what the hell this has done to my dad. He can't talk! He's just shut down. I almost died. And you say this was an ACCIDENT? What the hell were you doing that this was just an accident?"

Lydia pushed Scott out of the way and whirled Stiles around. He was breathing heavily and his nostrils were flaring. She put a hand on each shoulder and told him to calm down. Then she kneed him in the groin.

Stiles collapsed on the floor in a heap.

"That's for throwing me into the wall. If you're going to go crazy, that's fine. I've been there. Just don't be an abusive ass about it."

Scott knelt down to make sure Stiles was okay. He got a hand in his face shoving him away for his troubles, so he walked over and checked on Danny.

"Are you alright?"

"Nothing a bag of peas wouldn't cure," Danny laughed nervously. Scott smiled.

There was a loud smashing sound and Scott looked over and saw Lydia holding a mallet used for tenderizing meat. He also saw the stone in pieces.

"I was expecting that to take more than one hit," she said simply.

TW

Allison hated being left out. She was eating lunch alone because none of her friends bothered to show up for school. The calls from Scott's mom and Lydia's parents asking her if she knew why they never came home would be worrying if she hadn't received a text from Lydia the night before telling her to lie and say she was at Allison's if her parents called. She tried calling Lydia back and texting her but got not no response.

After school, Allison was supposed to hang out with her cousin and show her around Beacon Hills, but it was looking more and more likely that she'd have to cancel and rescue her friends from whatever idiocy they'd gotten themselves involved in.

"Since when do you fly solo?"

"Not now, Isaac," Allison said as she angrily chewed on her mac and cheese.

"I just noticed that everyone else is away but you. Scott, Stiles, Lydia, even Danny. It's kinda weird he started hanging out with you guys right after Jackson died."

Allison grunted her disapproval of the conversation, but Isaac ignored her and sat down. He reached for one of her french fries and had to jerk his hand back when Allison tried to stab him with her fork.

"Touchy, much?" Isaac asked as he gave Allison a lewd grin.

"Is there something you want or should I just shoot you in the face with an arrow?" Allison sighed in resignation.

Isaac chewed on his thumb before answering. "Derek wanted me to tell Scott that we're still looking for Peter. That's all."

"What?"

"You don't know? Derek's precious uncle bolted shortly after Stiles and Scott were asking if being bit by a werewolf makes you... Oh, would you look at that? It's time for me to run."

Too infuriated by the conversation she just had to eat, Allison pulled out her cell phone and tried calling her boyfriend again. He didn't answer. None of her missing friends did.

TW

"She's gone," Scott announced as he walked into the living room of the Stilinski room. Danny was sitting on the couch drinking a glass of water. "How are things on your end?"

"Lydia and Stiles are still bleaching down the kitchen. I'm on a union break," Danny answered wryly. "What did you do with her?"

"Same thing I did with the rest."

"Which means you aren't going to tell any of us," Danny mused as he took a sip. "I should probably get back to work."

"Danny, what did you do with the stone?" Scott asked as he sat beside him on the sofa. "You said you were going to take care of it."

"I flushed it, Scott. Better that nobody else be able to use it." Danny stood up, but Scott grabbed him by the wrist. "Yeah?"

"Do you still have time to talk?"

They both looked into the kitchen and saw Stiles and Lydia bickering as they scrubbed the blood from the wall. If any of them had stopped to think, they'd realize just how terrifyingly casual they were all being about it.

"Let's go upstairs. Mr. Stilinski is finally asleep and it doesn't seem like he'll be up anytime soon," Danny suggested. Scott nervously followed his up the stairs. He caught a glimpse of Lydia and Stiles peering around the corner and watching.

Scott led Danny to Stiles' room, and locked the door behind them. He settled himself on Stiles bed and Danny opted for one of the computer chairs. There was several minutes of awkward silence before Danny finally asked Scott what he wanted to talk about.

"It's about the kissing, isn't it?"

While he never looked up from the floor, Scott nodded.

"Sometimes straight guys experiment, Scott. It's perfectly normal. I mean, I don't know how many guys on the lacrosse team I've had drunk dial me trying to hook up. And Stiles is always hitting on me."

"Stiles is harmless," Scott assured Danny. He looked up when he heard Danny laugh.

"Sorry, but the fact that you thought you had to tell me that the class idiot was 'harmless' is hysterical. Especially after he punched me in the face and it didn't even bruise."

"Lay off him. It's not his fault he's an idiot," Scott chuckled as he caught Danny's eyes. His tone dropped to a serious one. "I love Allison."

"I know," Danny agreed. "Scott, whether you're straight, bisexual, pansexual, or just confused it doesn't matter. You're still you. And you love Allison. That's fine."

"It's not fine that I kissed you. You seem to keep glossing over that."

"Because it's not a big deal. Everyone wants to kiss me. I'm very kissable. It's part of my charm." Danny held his arms out and looked up to the ceiling as Scott giggled. "So you kissed someone else. Who cares? Allison doesn't know."

"At some point, I'm going to need to learn that secrets are a bad thing," Scott laughed. "And I should probably start by saying it."

"It?" Danny smiled as he clasped his hands.

"I'm bisexual. Or bi-curious. I'm bi-something."

"Bi-something it is, then," Danny agreed as he stood up, arms outstretched. "Welcome to the family."

"Thanks," Scott smiled as he hugged Danny, lifting him off the ground. "Oh, I have one other secret."

"What?" Danny asked as he motioned for Scott to put him down.

Scott held his hand to his lips and quietly walked over to the door. He unlocked it and pulled it open. Lydia and Stiles were crouched and nervously smiled at the two.

"I take it you two forgot about the hearing?" Scott asked as he pulled a hunk of wax out of his ear and flicked it onto Stiles' floor.

"Whatever," Lydia said as she stood up. "Congrats on liking guys, Scott. Now will you two get down here and help us?"

"So, you're gay?" Stiles asked as he and Scott followed Lydia and Danny.

"No..." Scott reiterated. "I am not gay."

"But you're into dudes."

"Yes," Scott sighed. He knew what was coming. "I'm pretty sure I like guys, and I'm going to tell Allison about it tonight. About everything."

Scott almost tripped down the stairs when Danny stopped right in from of him.

"Okay, not everything. But I have to tell her something. Lydia, can you help me tell her?" Scott pleaded.

"I guess," Lydia sighed. "I've been dodging her calls all day. Get your ass in the kitchen while I make a call. And make me a sandwich. I'm hungry."

Scott watched as Lydia walked into the living room, then he watched as Danny walked into the kitchen. He then noticed that Stiles was watching him.

"What?"

"Do you think I'm hot?"

"You're not my type," Scott laughed as he walked into the kitchen.

Stiles threw up his hands in frustration. "Why does every gay guy say that to me?"

TW

Hollywood told her that things struck at night in the woods. Reality told her that it happened in daylight at the mall. All she had been doing was waiting in the parking lot of the mall for her cousin. Now, she ran for her life, cutting between cars as something chased her. Something big. Rory was scared.

There was the sound of something scraping on metal, like a car being keyed. Rory's mind raced. She wanted to scream for help, but her voice wouldn't work. It took everything she had to keep running even though her chest felt like it was on fire and she had a stitch in her side.

But as fast as she ran, the thing chasing her was faster. A shadow flitted over her, blocking the sun for a second. A large mass of teeth and fur landed in front of her. The last thing Rory saw were its red eyes.

TW

"You owed me food for blowing me off for ages," Allison explained as she sat in a booth with Scott and Lydia. She was annoyed that Scott was acting upset about paying for food for three people.

"Couldn't it at least be good food?" Scott complained as he opened his wallet. "I only have twenty-three dollars. Take it easy on me. Please? I still have to get gas tonight."

"I'll think about it," Allison reasoned as she looked at the menu. "Lydia said you had some big secret to spill?"

"She what?" Scott looked at Lydia who shrugged as she pored through her own menu. "Fine, yes, there is something."

There was a few moments of silence as Scott struggled to think of what to say. It was only interrupted by the waitress asking if they were ready to order. Allison got a small sub and soda. Lydia ordered a steak and coffee. Scott cried into his wallet and asked for water.

"Just tell her already!" Lydia sighed as she began playing with the salt shaker.

"What did you do, Scott?" Allison glared at him. "I've put up with way too much of your crap for you to drag this out."

"I didn't do anything!" Scott protested as Lydia rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine, so maybe I did something, but I had good intentions."

"Scott..." Allison was annoyed by his stalling.

He looked to Lydia, who shrugged at him and started unscrewing the lid to the salt shaker. She stuck her finger in it and then licked the salt off.

"I like dudes," Scott said before hiding his face behind his arms.

"You're gay?" Allison asked in a deadpan voice. "No offence, Scott, but we've had sex and you seemed into it at the time."

"I'm not gay," Scott sighed. "I like guys, but I also like gals."

"Huh?"

"He'd bisexual, you dumb bitch," Lydia offered casually.

"You are?" Allison asked as she gave Lydia a healthy dose of side-eye.

"Yes? I think," Scott answered. "It's kind of confusing, but I wanted you to know."

"We're not having a threesome with Stiles."

Lydia dropped the salt shaker and it spilled into Scott's lap as she laughed.

"I don't want to have sex with Stiles," Scott said flatly.

"How was I supposed to know?"

"Do YOU want to have sex with Stiles?" Scott asked Allison with a pronounced finger point.

Her face was one of distaste. "Of course not!"

"That's how you know." Scott finally realized his lap was full of salt. He grabbed a pinch of it and threw it in Lydia's face, but she kept laughing. "Why are you even here?"

"Free food and you stupidly thought I'd be supportive," Lydia answered as she tried to calm herself. "I have no idea where you got that idea."

"Neither do I," Scott grumbled as he brushed what salt he could onto the floor.

The waitress interrupted to bring around the drinks. Lydia tried her best to compose herself so she wouldn't spill her coffee. Scott glowered and took his water. Allison thanked the waitress as she accepted her soda, then pointed out that the salt shaker was empty.

"I'm sorry," the waitress apologized. "I hate when kids unscrew those things so other people make a mess."

She took the shaker from the table and walked away. Allison glared at Lydia, who for her part was shaking with silent laughter.

"I'm glad you shared this with me, Scott," Allison finally said as she held out her hand to him. He took it and held it in his own. "It's going to be an adjustment, but I'm pretty sure you're worth it."

"I'm not," Lydia interrupted. Scott and Allison both gave her death glares. "What?"

"Now, while I've got you here, any other secrets you've been hiding from me?"Allison asked playfully.

"OW!" Scott yelled as Lydia kicked him under the table. A few people nearby looked at them, and he ducked down into his seat.

"You're telling her. Or I am," Lydia warned. "And I won't sugarcoat it."

"Fine," Scott said as he rubbed his leg. Being a werewolf meant he healed more quickly than the average person, but he could still feel pain. "Allison, there is something else."

"What is it? Is it why Isaac was sniffing around me at lunch while you guys were ditching me?"

"What did he say to you? What does he know?" Scott's voice was more panicked than he had intended.

Allison eyed him curiously. "Just that I'm supposed to tell you they're looking for Peter. Scott, what did you do now?"

"I didn't do it! Danny did it!" Scott asserted. Lydia kicked him again. "Fine, Danny did it and I helped him cover it up. Happy now?"

"I'm on my way to happy, but I wouldn't say I'm there quite yet." Lydia turned a half-empty bottle of ketchup upside down and watched its contents slide around. "Keep going, McCall."

"Fine," Scott groused as he turned back to Allison. "So, Danny started raising the dead and I helped him re-kill them."

"Seriously?" Allison sounded confused.

"Yeah. Stiles' mom happened to be one of them. Lydia offed her last night. That's why we gone all day."

"It's not as fun as it sounds," Lydia told Allison as she pulled at the jersey she was wearing. "That's why I look like crap today. Apparently teenage boys tend not to be fond of keeping clothes at their house for teenage girls."

Allison just sat and processed. The waitress brought over their food. Scott drank his water nervously, waiting for somebody to say something.

"This steak is bland. I should send it back," Lydia complained.

"You are not sending it back. This is a steakhouse. Just enjoy your food that cost half my paycheck," Scott ordered.

"Rude," Lydia replied. "And that waitress never brought back our salt."

"I'm going to the bathroom," Allison finally said as she finished her sub.

"Want me to come with you?" Lydia asked as sat her knife and fork on her plate.

"I think I'm gonna fly solo this time."

Scott watched her leave, then looked at Lydia. She kicked him again.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"That was for kissing Danny, you douche! I don't care about zombies or your sexual confusion right now. I care about you not hurting my friend. That's the only reason I haven't said anything about Danny or her mom. You dick."

"I'm going to go pay the bill. Eat your free food and pop a Midol."


	6. Chapter 6

Stiles was worried about his dad. They'd cleaned the house three times over. Scott even smelled the house to make sure there was no trace of his undead mother. Even though everything was as safe as it could be, Stiles' dad would not come to his senses. He was completely unresponsive.

There was only so long the station would take Stiles' calling in on his dad's behalf before the deputies got suspicious and started dropping by. So Stiles had called 911.

He couldn't reach Scott, who was out with Allison and Lydia, but he had gotten Scott's mom and she was at his house before the ambulance. It didn't take much acting on his part to cry into Melissa's arms as the EMTs loaded his father and drove away. Melissa whispered soothing words into Stiles' ear and helped him pack an overnight bag.

They had driven to the hospital to wait and see what would happen, but Melissa had told Stiles he was staying at her house until they had things figured out.

"Hey, Diane," Melissa said to one of the desk nurses, "Can you let Andy know I'm not working tonight? Sheriff Stilinski has been admitted and I'm the emergency contact to take care of his son."

Stiles blocked out the rest of the conversation as he remembered the promise his father and Scott's mother had made to take care of the kids should something happen to one of them. It had been years ago, when Scott's dad left, and Stiles had no idea they'd made it official and legal. But they had. Until his dad got better, Melissa McCall was his legal guardian.

"It's going to be okay," Melissa said as she sat beside Stiles and held his hand. He put his head on her shoulder and she stroked his hair. "Your dad is tough. Whatever is wrong, he's going to beat it."

All Stiles wanted to do was tell her how wrong she was, but he didn't want to tell her that her son, his best friend, was practically a murderer and that the girl he'd been crushing on since he was seven had killed his returned-from-the-dead mother. He didn't want to tell her that his undead mother had attacked him and was likely going to kill him and his dad if it weren't for Lydia.

So, instead, Stiles buried his face in his best friend's mother's chest and cried. She rocked him back and forth like a baby. Like a mother would.

TW

Allison was upset. She needed to kill something. She wanted to kill someone. She settled for crying as she kicked a punching bag. While she was in the bathroom at the restaurant avoiding Scott, her father called. Rory, the cousin she'd blown off to meet with Scott, had been found dead by one his men. They'd covered the scene up and erased any trace of Rory before the police arrived.

Her fists were sore and her knuckles bled, but Allison kept punching the canvas. Hot tears blurred her vision. Allison willed them not to fall, because she knew if the damn broke she was done. She had lost her mother and her aunt to werewolves. Her father was sure that a werewolf had killed her cousin: ripped her throat out.

She'd bolted past Scott and Lydia without explanation. She'd driven off without them, without telling them where she was going. Both tried calling her. Scott called once and Lydia called repeatedly for an hour before giving up. Allison ignored her cell and the dozens of text messages on it. The blood was running down her arms and she didn't care.

Her father and his men had gone patrolling without her. They were hunting Derek's pack. Allison wanted to go, but her father ordered her to stay behind. He said he had lost enough people. He forgot that she had lost the exact same people.

As much as she wanted to call Scott and tell him what happened and have him come over and hold her and tell her everything would be okay, she wanted even more to rely on herself. She didn't want to be rescued or protected or calmed. She wanted her rage.

Also, Scott would warn Derek. As much as Scott hated the Hales, he had shown them a modest degree of loyalty and helped keep them alive. Allison wanted to hang Derek Hale's head on her wall.

TW

"She ran off?" Danny asked as he pulled into Scott's driveway. "She ran off and Lydia left you there after driving you over?"

"Yeah. And I didn't want to go into wolf mode in the middle of the day. My mom still hasn't given me back my car privileges and Stiles isn't answering his phone," Scott explained as he unbuckled.

"So I'm your second choice?" Danny laughed as he parked his car.

"Third, actually." Scott grinned as he opened the passenger side door of Danny's car. "Thanks for the ride. I would've called my mom, but I'm not ready for that conversation."

"Coming out?" Danny asked even though he already knew the answer. "Scott, you're going to want to do it sooner rather than later. The longer you wait, the more you needlessly torture yourself."

"I know," Scott shut the car door and leaned back into the seat. "But you don't have a Latin mother. When she found out I was a werewolf, she locked herself in her room and refused to speak to me for ages. Do you really think she's going to be okay with having a son who likes boys?"

"He likes girls, too," Danny reminded Scott. "You have a girlfriend. Your mom is going to be fine with it. And if she isn't, then it's her loss."

"Speaking of my mother, I thought she'd be home. She's supposed to have today off. Another dodged bullet, though, since we all skipped school."

Danny killed the engine and pulled the keys out his car's ignition. "So, you told Allison about the stone and all the dead people."

"I didn't tell her who came back, Danny. But I did tell her you did it."

"And she ran off. Scott, that isn't a good sign. Too many people are learning about it."

"You think I don't know that?" Scott shouted angrily. "You think I don't know about how bad it can go when secrets come out?"

When he realized what he'd done, Scott apologized profusely. Danny assured him it was okay.

"Really, it's fine, Scott. We're all stressed. I'm sure Allison is just processing."

"You're lying," Scott pointed out.

"I know," Danny admitted. "Scott, I lie about a lot of things."

"Danny, are you about to tell me that you didn't try to bring back your cat with the stone? Because that is too stupid to be a lie," Scott scoffed.

"No, Scott, that is the honest truth about how the whole mess started." Danny shifted in his seat and put his hands on the steering wheel. His knuckles turned white he was gripping it so hard.

"I could tell, Danny," Scott assured him as he put a hand on Danny's arm. "You wear Armani every time you feel lonely. You aren't wearing it now."

Neither one said anything further. Scott kept his hand on Danny's arm as he leaned over the seat and half-straddled Danny. This time, the kiss was more pleasant, but it was awkward. Danny kept one hand on the steering wheel and used the other to help hold Scott up.

Scott wasn't used to kissing a man. Danny fought him for control, and he liked it. He liked the challenge and the taste of Danny's chapstick. Keeping his left hand on Danny's arm, Scott used his right to brace himself against the window. The steering wheel dug into his back but he didn't care.

They were so into each other that Scott didn't know his mother had pulled into the driveway until she was knocking on

Danny's car window. He smiled weakly at her. Stiles stood behind her and gave them a thumbs up.

TW

"You know, I'm fine with Scott being gay. Now I get why I'm not his type," Stiles told Danny as he lounged around on Scott's bed. Danny nervously paced the floor. "What I don't get is why you decided to stay."

"Scott asked me to," Danny explained as he tried to listen to what Scott and his mom were saying in the living room. "I've done this, Stiles. Coming out isn't easy."

"But making out with a guy with a girlfriend is?" Stiles held his hands up and scooted back when Danny glared at him.

"Hey, I'm not judging. I'm just wondering how you flipped Scott to your team and I can't even get Lydia to look at me."

Danny sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. "You know, you think you're being cute, but you're really being annoying. I didn't flip Scott, and Scott's not gay. You do know what bisexuality is, right?"

"Yes, Danny, I know what bisexuality is. I've watched Jerry Springer," Stiles stared at Danny intensely. "But why do you find Scott attractive and not me?"

"Why do you care so much about whether or not I'm into you? Are you gay? Bisexual? Or are you just stupid?" Danny huffed. "Besides, what Scott and I do is none of your business."

"I'm afraid that's where you're wrong," Stiles said as he held up his pinky finger. "See, when you get my sexually confused, semi-closeted best friend to cheat on his scary girlfriend with you it becomes my business.

"Besides, you two weren't even being private about it. You were making out in the driveway."

"It was dark out," Danny argued ineffectually. Truth was, he knew Stiles was right. Once was a mistake, but twice was cheating. And Danny actually liked Allison. "And why are you even here?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Stiles went into a funk immediately after and wouldn't say anything further. Danny actually found himself missing Stiles' ignorance. It kept his mind off whatever was happening downstairs.

TW

It wasn't unusual for Lydia Martin to go on walks. It was unusual for her to wander around a forest the next county over. She didn't know why, but she felt compelled to go to this place she had never been before and she was certain that it involved Peter Hale.

"I know you know I'm here, Asshole!" Lydia screamed at the trees. She didn't even get birds flying off for her trouble.

The moment Allison left the restaurant, Lydia sensed it. She sensed Peter calling out to her. And as much as she told herself it was a bad idea, she drove off to find him. Leaving Scott stranded was just a perk.

There was a rustling of the foliage. Lydia followed the sound with her eyes and watched as a large werewolf burst through the brush and stopped just short of smashing into her. Its breath and hot and putrid and made her eyes water as it bared its fangs mere inches from her face.

"Hello, Peter," Lydia said calmly.

She had to look away as he morphed into human form. He stood naked in front of Lydia and made no attempts to cover himself. Lydia made no attempts to keep her eyes above his waist.

"You weren't scared," Peter acknowledged as he leered at Lydia. "Why, you didn't even blink."

"Because I know that you still need me. You need me alive."

"Oh, I do?" Peter smirked as he ran his hand through Lydia's hair. "What would I need with a pathetic little twit like you?"

"Because your life is tied to mine. I don't know how, but I know it is. I can feel it," Lydia said in a sultry whisper as she stepped up to Peter. She ran a hand over his bare chest. "I know you're the reason I destroyed the stone. Why? Why did you have me do it? What purpose did that serve?"

Peter grabbed Lydia's hand and held it. The back of his other hand brushed her cheek. "Because I know what that stone did, Lydia. It didn't bring back the dead. Which you knew. It brought back things too ancient for you to comprehend. And the longer they spend in this realm, the more power they gain. I couldn't risk it being used again."

"So, it's like The Old Ones from Lovecraft?" Lydia asked as she used her free hand to trace muscles on Peter's back.

"Something ancient and mysterious that would drive me mad from the revelation? Because I'm already crazy thanks to you."

"Not quite that mainstream, but similar."

"How do you know this?" Lydia asked Peter as she laid her head on his chest.

With a sigh, Peter held Lydia to him. She could hear his heart beating. "I learned a lot of things when I prepared my plans for you. Oh, the plans I have for you."

"You might want to work on perfecting your control over me, then," Lydia warned as she stepped away and curtsied.

"Because I don't work for you."

"What are you talking about?" Peter asked confused.

"You know what I'm hearing and what I'm saying, but not what I'm thinking. Or who I'm texting."

Before she had even finished the sentence, Derek and Isaac tackled Peter from either side. Derek held him down and ordered Isaac to fetch a blanket.

"You can't get naked around teenage girls. It's creepy, even for you," Derek told his uncle before punching him in the face.

TW

Scott threw open his bedroom door and practically pounced on Stiles with a hug. "Oh, man, I was so wrapped up in my own drama I completely blanked on what it's doing to you. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," Stiles assured him awkwardly as he patted Scott on the back. Danny just stared at them silently.

With guilty eyes, Scott asked Danny for some privacy. "I'm sorry. I know I asked you to stay, and now I'm kicking you out. This is important."

"I guess I'll head home?" Danny said with uncertainty. "Call me if you need anything."

"Thanks," Scott replied as he walked Danny out of his room. They stopped in the doorway and a nervous grin played on Scott's face. "It was... fun."

"Call me," Danny repeated.

"I will."

Danny headed down the hallway and Scott closed the door. He turned to see Stiles grinning at him stupidly.

"What?"

"How do you get two hotties and I can't even manage one?" Stiles laughed. "So, your mom is cool with it?"

"Stiles, I think your dad is more important than my love life," Scott answered as he sat beside his best friend. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, I don't," Stiles said. "I really don't, Scott, so let's get back to how you're gay for Danny."

"I'm not gay, Stiles," Scott reminded him.

"I know, you're bisexual. Whatever. You're still gay for Danny. And your mom?"

Scott sighed. "She took it better than I thought. I guess she had thought for a bit that you and I were gay."

"Together?"

"Yep." Scott looked at the ceiling. "Then Allison happened and she figured out we were just losers."

"No offence, Scott, but if I were gay I would like to think I could do better than you," Stiles said. "Like, I know he's a werewolf and hates me and stuff, but Isaac is cute. Don't you think Isaac is cute?"

"Stiles, stop. We are not discussing whether or not Isaac Lahey is cute."

"But he is," Stiles argued. "You know, you could date any guy and talk to me about it. Except Derek Hale. He scares me."

"I have a girlfriend," Scott reminded Stiles. "Remember her name? Allison?"

"Yes, Scott, I remember. I also remember your mom and I walking in on you and Danny making out in your driveway. So, yeah."

"Yeah..." Scott stood up and began pacing. "Stiles, I feel weird because I love Allison. Like, walk across burning hot coals and dive into a frozen lake kinda love. But I really like Danny. A lot. Which is weird because I don't know if I like him or if I'm projecting the whole being into guys thing on him because he's gay."

"I think it's weirder that you know what 'projecting' means," Stiles pointed out. "You're over thinking everything. Do you want to be with Allison?"

"Yes," Scott said.

"Do you want to see if there's anything with Danny beyond awkward groping in a car?"

Scott was silent for a few seconds before answering. "I think I do."

"Then you probably need to talk to them instead of me. Personally, I'd talk to Danny first because his family doesn't keep hundreds of weapons in the house."

"And what do I say? 'Hey, Danny, I know we bonded over you raising and dead and I'm just now figuring out I'm bi-something, but do you wanna go on a date and pretend I don't have a girlfriend?' Because I don't see that going over too

well," Scott proclaimed. "I mean, I'm not that big on the whole cheating thing."

"Scott, listen, whatever you do I'm here to support you. I helped you with the Kanima thing, so being gay is no big deal."

Scott just rolled his eyes.

TW

"He broke up with you? Over the phone?" Lydia shouted into her phone as she drove home. "Do you need me to come over? Do you want me to kick his pussy ass?"

"It's fine," Allison told her in an icy voice. "He said he had issues and that it wasn't me. It probably didn't help that I pretty much ran out on him after he came out."

"You ran off after he told you he'd been killing zombies," Lydia clarified. "It was a perfectly normal reaction, Allison."

There was silence on the other end of the line and Lydia thought the call had been dropped for a while before Allison finally responded. "Yeah. I guess it was."

"Allison, he was a dweeb before the whole werewolf thing, and he still is a dweeb. You deserve better than that loser. Your ass had better be at home, because I'm headed to the store to get ice cream and country music CDs. The old stuff. Not the crap they have now. And then I'm coming over to make you cry your feelings out."

"That's not necessary, Lydia," Allison started before Lydia hung up.

Her foot pushed down on the gas pedal and she was well beyond breaking the speed limit. Lydia just smiled as she planned her revenge.

TW

"This is me calling you," Scott announced into his phone. He heard Danny chuckle into the receiver. "I broke up with Allison."

"Scott, are you sure you want to do that?" Danny questioned.

Honestly, Scott wasn't sure of what he wanted. Every time he thought he had things figured out his whole world turned itself upside down.

"No, Danny, it's not what I want. But it's what I need. I need to be alone. I need to take care of my best friend. I need to realize that not everything revolves around me," Scott insisted. Whether he was telling Danny or reminding himself he wasn't sure.

"So why did you call and tell me you broke up with Allison? Because I like you, Scott, but it's too soon for anything serious to happen. Making out in your driveway or not."

"That's exactly why I'm calling. To tell you nothing is happening. I like you, too, Danny, but it's not going to happen anytime soon, if it ever does."

"You are a presumptuous ass, Scott McCall," Danny testified. Then he hung up.

Scott sat on his bed and smiled at Stiles.

"Welcome back to Loserville, population us," Stiles laughed as he threw a pillow at Scott's head.


	7. Chapter 7

The sound of a body hitting a locker was loud enough to make everyone in the hallway look. Lydia threw a math book at Scott's head that he just barely managed to dodge.

"Would you calm down?" Scott shouted as he held up his hands to block the science book Lydia had chucked at him. When she ran out of projectiles, she started clawing into him with her well manicured nails.

"You are an asshole!" Lydia screamed as Isaac pulled her off. She slammed the back of her head into his face, causing him to let her go more out of shock than actual pain. The girl body checked Scott.

"What is going on here?" Ms. Morell, the guidance counsellor demanded as she stepped between Scott and Lydia. "Assault is not tolerated on school grounds. To my office young lady. You two, follow."

With great reluctance, Scott and Isaac followed as everyone stared at them and whispered. He knew it was going to be ugly when he returned to school, but Scott had expected Allison to just be cold and distant. A crazy Lydia going all Wonder Woman on him was a bit of a surprise.

"Mr. Lahey, go to the Nurse. And don't try to slip off because I'll be checking with her," Ms. Morell ordered Isaac when they reached her office. She directed Lydia and Scott into her office and had them sit down. Lydia huffed, but didn't say anything.

Ms. Morell just watched Lydia and Scott as she picked up the phone on her desk and made a phone call. "Yes, could you please have someone come out to Beacon Hills High School? No, the school isn't under attack, I'm just following protocol. Thank you."

She asked Scott for his phone number, but he explained his mother wouldn't be home. Then she asked where his mother would be, and he said she was at work and gave the hospital's number, cringing the whole time.

All he'd wanted to do was go to class, avoid his ex, and go home. What he didn't want was to drag his mother away from work yet again. When they would get home, she'd berate him and ground him and he hadn't even done anything this time.

Ms. Morell tried to phone Lydia's parents, but neither answered so she left voice messages telling them to call the school.

"Now that that's out of the way, would you like to tell me what that was all about?" the guidance counsellor asked of the teenagers.

"He's a tool," Lydia responded angrily as she crossed her arms. "Listen, if he wasn't such a coward then we wouldn't be here."

"Scott?" Ms. Morell gave Lydia a look that clearly indicated that the young woman should calm herself.

He chewed on his thumbnail and thought before answering. "Allison and I broke up."

"No, you dumped her. Over the phone!" Lydia screamed in Scott's ear. It hurt so much that had to cover his sensitive ears.

"Miss Martin, you will quiet down," the counsellor warned in a measured tone. "Just because Scott and Allison aren't dating anymore is no reason to physically assault him."

"He's fine. Aren't you Scott?" Lydia growled as she glared at him.

"I'd really rather just let this go," Scott agreed.

"I can't do that. This school has a zero tolerance policy regarding violence. At the very least, you face suspension, Lydia."

"You can't suspend me! I'm in line to be Valedictorian!" Lydia cried out in what sounded a lot like pain to Scott.

"Maybe you'll think about that the next time you decide to hit someone on school grounds, Miss Martin."

TW

"She got a three day suspension, and my mom wasn't mad," Scott offered as he sat next to Allison. School was out and kids were either driving off in cars their parents bought for them or climbing on buses, but the former lovers just sat under one of the pine trees on the school grounds. "This is weird, isn't it?"

"It is weird," Allison affirmed with a laugh. "I'm glad we can be civil, though. I don't want a repeat of what happened after my mom died."

"Neither do I," Scott agreed nervously as he looked everywhere but at Allison. "I want you to know that it really didn't have anything to do with you."

"That's the oldest let down in the book," Allison pointed out as she began fiddling with a pine cone that had fallen on the ground. "There is someone else, isn't there?"

"There might have been," Scott confessed cautiously as he kept an eye on Allison's hands, "but I decided that, right now, the last thing I need is to get involved in another relationship."

"I want to say thanks, but that's weird. Everything about this weird." Allison opened her backpack and pulled an apple out. It was green and Scott could taste the sour juices just by smelling it. She bit into it before noticing Scott staring at it. "Want a bite?"

Hesitation overwhelmed him for half a second, but Scott reached out and grabbed the apple. Suddenly, he found himself missing Allison even though she was sitting right beside him. He missed her touch, the smell of her hair as he kissed neck, everything.

Nothing was said. The words that wanted to spill from his lips were choked back and he just focused on the crunch of the apple in his mouth.

"Thanks."

"It's going to be weird for awhile, Scott," Allison observed too casually. Scott heard the tremble in her voice he knew she was trying to hide. "It's going to hurt for awhile, too. I'm not going to lie. But I don't want to hate you. I want to be a better person than that. You respected me enough not to cheat on me."

Scott didn't say anything.

"And I want you to know that thing you told me? It doesn't bother me. That's not why I left the restaurant. There are issues happening with my family."

"What's wrong?" Scott fought the urge to reach out and hold her hand. It would probably do more harm than good.

She laughed sadly shook her head. "No offence, but I really don't want to talk about it. Especially not with my brand spanking new ex-boyfriend."

"Okay," Scott acquiesced as he picked at the grass. "What can we talk about?"

"How about Stiles? I heard about his dad..." Allison trailed off and closed her eyes. "Well, I heard his dad is in the hospital. Nobody seems to know anything specific."

"Stiles is dealing with it, I guess. He doesn't want to talk to anyone about it," Scott said as he plucked a blade of grass and began stripping it with his fingernails. "You know he skipped school today to hang out at the hospital? I told him I'd stop after school."

"But you're talking to me instead," Allison noted. "Don't let me hold you up. I'm not important."

"You are important," Scott assured Allison rather forcefully as he put his hand on her knee. She looked at him and he quickly withdrew it. "But, um, can you give me a ride to the hospital?"

"I wish I could," Allison said quietly, "but I have somewhere to be."

Scott heard her heart skip a beat as she lied, but he didn't say anything about it. He just excused himself and walked away. He also heard Allison start crying.

TW

Doing chemistry without a partner was harder than Danny expected. Sure, he did most of the actual work since Stiles was an idiot, but it was nice to have someone to bounce thoughts off. Even if said person didn't understand said thoughts.

He threw his pen across his room in frustration and decided to take a break. It was not his week. Danny missed Jackson. He wanted to call him and tell him about the weirdness with Scott and his friends and have Jackson make fun of him for his bad taste in men. Danny just wanted a friend.

"Everyone likes Danny," he muttered to himself glumly. Sure, everyone liked him, but nobody cared. All he was to everyone was Jackson's friend. If not that, then he was the gay guy. His life was thoroughly mediocre. He didn't even have a boyfriend to talk to anymore. Not that his last boyfriend was big on talking. None of them were, to be honest. When he thought about it, Danny realized that even when he was with Scott and his friends all they did was talk about each other and only talked to him when the whole bringing-people-back-from-the-dead thing came up.

Danny wanted to be someone's priority.

The sound of someone knocking on glass caught Danny's attention and he saw his lacrosse teammate Isaac Lahey perched outside his window. It was weird, because there was no place for him to stand since Danny's room was on the second story.

He opened the window and Isaac slipped into Danny's room. Danny looked out the window and didn't see so much as a ladder.

"How did you get up here?" Danny asked as he stared at Isaac. If he remembered correctly, the last time he so much as spoke to Isaac they were making out in the locker room at school. That only made it odder that Isaac had sneaked into his room.

"Wolf powers. And you have a surprisingly big windowsill," Isaac replied as he looked around Danny's room. He picked up Danny's statuette of Batwoman and shrugged. "I was expecting this place to be a little more..."

"Gay?" Danny finished annoyed as he crossed his arms. "I put my Cher posters up in the living room. What do you want?"

"Derek wants to see you," Isaac answered calmly as he put the action figure back on its shelf. "Something about his Uncle Peter."

"Derek Hale?" Even though he'd never met him, Danny knew the name. Everyone knew about the Hale fire, and Danny knew about the Hales being werewolves from his time with Scott. Even though he knew the answer, Danny asked Isaac why Derek would care about him.

With a grin that could have easily been a leer, Isaac nodded. "He wants me to take you to him. Now."

"I have homework," Danny argued rather weakly.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way. And we both know you like it rough." Isaac smirked as he stood in front of Danny's window. "And don't think about calling Scott."

Honestly, Danny hadn't even considered the possibility. He just strolled past Isaac, closed his window, then motioned for the werewolf to lead the way.

TW

"You should've come out years ago. I'd have loved to go to your quinceañera," Stiles said as Scott sat beside him in the hospital hallway. "I mean, nobody would've been there, but hey."

"How is he?" Scott asked as he scratched at his hairline. Nurses rushed by, but none was his mother. "And I picked up your homework for you."

"We both know that isn't getting done," Stiles reasoned as he laced his fingers together in a steeple. "And he's the same. There's nothing physically wrong with him beyond dehydration and he has an IV for that. It's a mental thing, the doctor said."

"A breakdown?"

"Something like that," Stiles nodded. "Scott, I never got to know my mom. All I had was my dad growing up. I can't lose him."

"I'm sorry, Stiles." Putting and arm around Stiles' shoulder, Scott pulled him into a half hug. "This shouldn't be happening."

"You know I don't blame you, Scott. I can't even blame Danny even though it totally is his fault. This would probably be happening even if you weren't all fangs and fur half the time. My dad is the sheriff. If it weren't this, he might've been shot or stabbed or something. Being a cop's wife or husband is hard, but being their kid is even harder."

The thought had never entered Scott's head. Beacon Hills, until recently, had always seemed a relatively safe place to live. He never thought anything would happen to his best friend's father because it seemed like nothing really happened.

Without anything to say in response, Scott just sat beside Stiles, his arm staying around his shoulder.

TW

Lydia paced the burnt floor of the Hale homestead. Derek yelled at her to calm down, but she didn't listen. Peter sat on the stairs. His eyes darted between Lydia and Derek but he didn't dare move.

Derek and Peter both perked up, and about ten seconds later Lydia heard a vehicle pulling up to the house. She motioned for Derek and Peter too stay while she checked it out. Without a doubt, one of the werewolves would've been better for a potential threat of any kind, but Lydia had the need to take charge.

"Isaac is back," she announced from the doorway. She walked back into the house and sat beside Peter, silently daring him to say or do something.

"Honey, I'm home!" Isaac called out as he showed Danny into the house. "And look at what I found? Can we keep him?"

"Miguel?" Danny stared at Derek, causing everyone else to stare as well. "What are you doing here?"

"It's Derek," the Alpha corrected.

"Huh, you look just like this guy I met."

"I guess I have one of those faces," Derek said without a trace of amusement. "Lydia here tells me that you did something really stupid. Does bringing people back from the dead sound familiar?"

Eyes trained on Danny, Lydia watched his every movement carefully. He shuffled his feet, jammed his hands in his pockets, and hunched his shoulders. She was suspicious.

"Kinda," Danny answered nervously as he looked at Lydia with pleading eyes. She scoffed and he turned his attention to Isaac even as he continued speaking to Derek. "I mean, yeah, I did it. Accidentally."

"How do you 'accidentally' create zombies?" Derek got up in Danny's face and snarled. Then he looked at Peter as his teeth began elongating into fangs. "And if you knew, why wouldn't you tell me?"

"Hmm," Peter hummed as he crossed his legs. "It was none of my business. Scott and this handsome young fellow seemed to have everything under control. There was no need for me to get involved."

Angry, Derek grabbed Danny by the front of his shirt and lifted him off the ground. "Tell me what you did and how you did it. Now."

"You might want to put him down, Derek. He's terrified," Isaac pointed out as he smelled Danny. "You can smell the fear. And what's that cologne?"

"Armani," Lydia answered for him. "Danny always wears Armani. I used to smell it all the time when he hung out with me and Jackson."

Lydia was relishing the terror evident on Danny's face. She was certain they wouldn't hurt him. They'd promised they wouldn't, and there was nothing they would get from doing it. Still, this was a step in the right direction for making Danny and Scott pay for what they'd done to Allison.

"Fine." Derek dropped Danny, who collapsed on the floor and shuffled as far from Derek as he could. "I'm still waiting for an answer."

"Here," Isaac offered a hand to Danny and helped him to his feet. Danny half-hid behind Isaac.

"Look, it was just a necklace my mom gave me with a black rock in it. When I was a kid, she used to tell me it granted wishes," Danny explained in a quaky voice. "It's stupid, but my cat slipped out of the house and got hit by a car."

"And you wished your cat back to life, causing all kinds of dead people to come back?" Derek groaned and punched the wall. Plaster fell from the ceiling and into Isaac and Danny's hair. "You're right, it is stupid. But I know you're not lying, which makes you even more pathetic."

"May I?" Peter asked as he touched his chest in his own fingertips.

"May you what?" Derek asked as he stormed away from Danny.

"Can I talk to the young boy?" The elder clarified.

"No, your creepy ass may not," Derek informed him. "Just sit there until I tell you that you can move."

A self-serving smirk played at Lydia's lips at looked into Peter's eyes. He held her gaze, but only for a second. He and the rest of the werewolves looked at each other before running out the back of the house. Lydia and Danny were left to avoid looking at each other at Chris Argent and his team of men entered the house.

"What are you doing here?" Chris barked at his daughter's best friend. Then he saw Danny and ordered the rest of his men out of the house.

"We were supposed to have a threesome, but the other guy is running late," Lydia answered in a tone that showed she didn't really care about the dramatics. "See, we kids like coming to abandoned, isolated places to do that."

"Seriously?" Chris asked as he looked between Danny and Lydia.

"No," she laughed coldly. "We came out here to discuss Jackson. Where our parents won't learn about werewolves and Kanimas and the like."

"He knows?" Chris looked at Danny suspiciously, as Danny visibly tried to make himself smaller. "How does he know?"

"Mr. Argent, let me introduce you to Scott McCall's new boyfriend," Lydia grinned as she twisted the metaphorical knife in Danny's back.

TW

Home was not where Danny chose to go after the men with the guns let him go. They told him to go home and not to say anything, but he was too spooked. If he were still alive, Danny would have called Jackson. He called Jackson after that night he was attacked at Jungle. Jackson was dead, though. And he didn't want to talk to a headstone. Even if it were just a makeshift one.

So he did the next best thing: he went to Allison. If there was anyone he could talk to about her father, it was Allison herself. There was hesitation as he knocked on her front door. There was even more when she answered it.

"Danny?" Her head was tilted at an angle and she rubbed her eyes, almost as if to make sure he was really there. "Um, hi. What's up?"

"I need help," he muttered as he looked over his shoulder. He'd parked two blocks down the road just in case her father came home. "Can I come in? Someone might see me."

Allison stepped to the side and Danny walked past her. He'd never actually been in her house before, just the garage for "Werewolf Boot Camp" as Lydia had put it.

"Your dad knows I know. Lydia told him. She told him everything. Your dad's going to kill Scott. Oh god, I can't breathe."

Gasping for air, Danny bent over and held his stomach. Allison slammed her door shut and guided him to the sofa. His breath remained shallow and she fetched him a glass of water.

"Are you okay?" Allison sat the water down on her table and sat beside Danny, rubbing his back. "This looks like a panic attack. I had a cousin that used to get them. You're going to be fine. Danny, listen to me.

"You're going to be fine. My dad isn't going to kill Scott. He already knows Scott is a werewolf. You know this. It's fine: everything is fine. Just tell me what is happening."

After ten minutes of Allison trying to calm Danny down with a soothing voice and gentle touching, including holding his hand, he was finally coherent enough to make sense of what he was saying.

"Allison, we never told you, but I accidentally raised the dead. That's how I found out about Scott being a werewolf."

"I figured," she noted as she continued rubbing Danny's arm and holding his hand. "Scott mentioned it recently but my mind has been elsewhere."

Danny wondered where else her mind could go when it came to people returning from the dead. It wasn't like it was a common occurrence, even in a town where werewolves and hunters roamed at night and his dead best friend was some weird snake monster.

"What he didn't tell you was that Jackson was one of the first. So was your mother."

Allison froze. It was impossible to guess just what she was thinking.

"It wasn't her, Allison. It wasn't your mother. And it wasn't Jackson. But your father doesn't know that. I couldn't say anything. I couldn't do anything. I just..."

He was useless. For around a month, Danny had been part of the secret supernatural society, and he'd made everything worse. His only hope of keeping Scott alive was Allison.

"How do you know it wasn't her?" Allison asked in a small voice as her nails dug into Danny's arm and hand. "How do you know it wasn't my mother?"

"Because she is gone, Allison. It was her body, rejuvenated, but something else was in it. Something not human. It's why I killed Jackson."

Nails pulled themselves out of Danny's skin as Allison softened. "You killed Jackson?"

"It wasn't really Jackson," Danny explained as he fought back tears. "His parents still think he's missing, you know. I have a grave for him, but his body isn't there. I don't know where it is. Scott got rid of the body.. I don't know where. He won't tell me. It's probably best that I don't know.

"But I guess that when Jackson was revived, after your grandfather died, you all thought he was the same Jackson. But he wasn't."

"It's going to be okay," Allison repeated as she hugged Danny.

"No, it's not," Danny argued a little too loudly. "Allison, your dad wants to kill Scott. Lydia told him that Scott is the one who killed her when she came back."

"Is he?" Allison asked. "Of course he is. Dammit. Get up, Danny, we're leaving."

Unsure but compliant, Danny followed Allison out to her garage. She grabbed her crossbow from a hook on the wall and a hunting knife.

"We aren't going to hurt Scott, are we?"

"No." Allison strapped the knife to her leg and put on fingerless gloves. "We're going to go save his ass."

TW

The night wind was cool as Lydia walked through the empty forest of Beacon Hills. She played with the ends of her hair as she twirled in the dirt and dead leaves. She hummed a simple song: a lullaby whose lyrics she couldn't quite remember.

"I was wondering when you would show up," Lydia whispered as Peter joined her, humming the tune where she left off. "So, Derek bought it?"

"My nephew never was the best thinker. Are the Argents going after McCall?" Peter grabbed Lydia's hand as they strolled through the dark brush.

"Of course," Lydia laughed. Peter picked her up and spun her, laughing happily. "Everything is progressing just as we planned. There's just one thing."

"What's that?" Peter asked as he sat Lydia back on the ground.

"I need my reward," Lydia responded as she stood on the tips of her toes and hooked her arms around Peter. She pulled him down into a deep kiss.

TW

Danny parked in front of the hospital and Allison bolted into the parking lot. She'd left her crossbow in his car and he just stared at it before following her. The last time he'd been in the hospital, he was recovering from the attack at Jungle.

"How did you know he would be here?" Danny asked as he followed Allison into the lobby.

"Which room is Sheriff Stilinski in? I'm here to pick up his son," Allison lied to the nurse at the reception desk. After getting answers, she and Danny power walked to an elevator. When it opened, Allison saw her father holding Scott by the collar of his shirt.

"Allison, go home," Chris Argent ordered his daughter.

Defiant, Allison walked into the elevator. Danny stuck his foot in front of the door.

"Let him go, Dad," Allison demanded.

"I take it you know what he did," Chris said as he looked at Danny. "You know the rules. We hunt those who hunt us."

Allison opened her mouth as if to speak, but instead punched her father in the throat. She grabbed Scott and threw him into the hallway, attracting the attention of the nurses and orderlies on duty. Her father recovered, but Allison kneed him in the groin and kicked him against the wall. She slapped a random button on the elevator and leaped out. Danny removed his foot and helped Scott up.

"We have to go," Allison commanded as she led Danny and Scott through the halls of the hospital, dodging the questions of the medical staff. "My dad definitely didn't come alone and we only have surprise on our side for so long."

"Where is Stiles?" Danny asked Scott as they reached the exit. "They wouldn't hurt him, would they?"

"They wouldn't kill him," Allison replied coldly. "He's better off not getting involved."

"Stiles is fine. Your dad grabbed me in the bathroom," Scott agreed as they ran to Danny's car, Allison leading the way. "What the hell is going on?"

Pushing Scott into the backseat, Allison ordered Danny to get into the car. He saw a vehicle pulling up beside them, a black van with no license plates. Allison grabbed her crossbow and sunk an arrow into one of the front tires, forcing the van to stop as she climbed into the car.

"GO!" she yelled at Danny as she loaded a new arrow.

He started the engine and slammed on the gas, almost hitting a parked car.

"Where are are we going?" Danny asked Allison since she seemed to be in charge.

"How should I know? Just get us out of town. Head North. They'll expect us to head for LA or something to try to shake them off."

"We have school," Danny said stupidly. "I have to call my parents."

"No phones. Hand them over," Allison demanded. She grabbed them from Scott and Danny and pulled her own out. Then she threw them from the car window. "They know how to trace the GPS. Speaking of which..."

Danny almost cried when Allison ripped the GPS off his dashboard and threw it out the window as well. "This is my mom's car! She's going to kill me!"

"My dad is going to do worse. Turn up here." Allison pulled her wallet out of her pocket, suddenly glad she'd never been big on carrying a purse. "I have thirteen dollars. You guys?"

"I have a twenty in the glove box for emergency gas money. Why?" Danny wondered as he slowed and turned onto an access road to a highway.

"We don't have time to stop and get supplies. My dad is bound to have all of our houses staked out by now."

Scott finally interrupted from the back seat. Danny looked in the rearview mirror and saw that Scott was surprisingly not freaking out over everything. Then again, Danny was surprised he wasn't more freaked out himself. He reasoned that it was probably a combination of adrenaline and shock.

"Will you please tell me what is going on?" Scott yelled as he looked out the back window. "I thought your dad was fine with me!"

"He knows about my mom, Scott," Allison told him as she double-checked her crossbow. Danny wasn't sure if she was doing it to scare the boys or not. "Lydia told him. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was scared," Scott confessed in a pleading voice. "How do you tell your girlfriend that you killed her reanimated mother?"

"Well, you don't lie to her about it for weeks. That would be a start," Allison pointed out as she sighed and buckled her seat belt. "Good god, we are screwed."

"My mom is going to have a heart attack," Scott observed. "Is there any way you can talk to your dad? Get him to calm down?"

"After a couple of days, sure. But right now we need distance. And anonymity. Danny, when we're in the next county I need you to pull into a parking lot. Any parking lot."

"Why?" Danny wasn't sure why, but Allison taking charge seemed to calm him down. He felt as close to safe as he could with her.

"We're going to have to swap licence plates. This car would be too easy to trace if your parents report it stolen, and we definitely do not need the cops hunting for us as well," Allison responded as she pulled her knife from its sheath. "Don't stop for gas until you reach about a quarter of a tank. When we're two counties out, we'll get groceries. Bottled water and apples. They're cheap and somewhat healthy."

As Allison looked over her blade, Danny looked at Scott in the mirror. "Dude, it's going to be fine. We're going to be fine."

He didn't believe it, but it felt good to say it aloud.


	8. Chapter 8

It had been two days of silence. Two days of holding herself together for Stiles and breaking down when she felt it was safe to do so. Crying in the shower, in the car, in the elevator at work when she was alone. Melissa missed her son. She was terrified for what could have happened to him. And that Stiles, his partner in crime, legitimately didn't know what was going on either just terrified her all the more.

On the third day, she finally heard from him. A text message from a phone number she didn't recognize that she couldn't get a response from. It was nothing, and the police couldn't trace it because it was from a disposable phone that had already been deactivated, but it was hope. Hope was what Melissa McCall needed more than anything.

All the message had said was that he hoped to come home soon, written in that bizarre texting language only teenagers knew. She would find herself pulling her phone out at random times and reading it. The words never changed, no matter how much she wished they would, but they were comforting.

She knew that she was probably scaring Stiles. Everyday, she would hug him and tell him she loved him. He would nod nervously, stammer a reply, and then run out the door to school, or to visit his dad at the hospital, or go to bed. Only sometimes would he trip.

TW

It was the third day on the run, and Danny was sick of it. They were lost somewhere in Washington with two dollars and half a tank of gas. Scott had managed to steal a prepaid cellphone and had Danny hack it at a computer store while Allison swapped the fourth set of licence plates. Scott had managed to send his mom a text telling him they were okay before Allison caught them and destroyed the phone.

"It's hot," Scott complained from the passenger seat as he stuck his head out the window like a dog.

"We're still technically in the Pacific Rim. It's gonna be hot. Volcanoes and all that," Allison lectured from the driver's seat as she grabbed Scott's shirt and pulled him back in the car. "Listen, I think I'm going to call my dad today. See if he's willing to listen to reason."

"Finally!" Danny cried from the back seat where he was supposed to be sleeping. He'd been the primary driver most of the trip. "It's been way too long since I've had a shower."

"At least you don't have heightened werewolf senses," Scott teased as he wrinkled his nose.

Danny snorted and sat up. During the three days they'd been on the run, there hadn't been much to do but listen to the radio, and hearing the same three songs on every station got old fast so the trio had talked. They'd talked about a lot.

The first day, they talked strategy. Hiding, Scott ducking every time a familiar vehicle or cop car drove by, what to do if Allison's dad or his people caught up to them. The second day, everyone was sick of going over the same plans, so they talked about things three people would only talk about if they had nothing else to talk about.

"There's a gas station up ahead." Allison pointed at a sign on the side of the road. "You two go freshen up in the bathroom while I see if they'll let me use the phone. If not, let's hope they have a payphone."

"Do we have enough money for you to use a payphone?" Danny worried as he opened his wallet and watched a metaphorical moth fly out of it. "Because we're kind of broke."

"We'll be fine. Trust me," Allison smiled as she relaxed into the seat. "I grew up moving a lot. You get me a hose, I can get you gasoline."

"Kinky," Scott snorted. Allison reached over and playfully slapped him.

"Did you two really think thirty dollars was going to get us here with gas prices?" Allison asked seriously. "I cut some hose from an air station and I've syphoning gas every time I stopped to change plates. The hose is in the trunk with some gasoline filled water bottles. I'm shocked you didn't smell it, Scott."

"I wasn't looking for it, I guess," he shrugged.

"What do we say to our parents?" Danny asked Allison as she pulled into the gas station. "I can't exactly tell them everything, and I doubt Scott wants to tell his mom about your dad."

"No offence, but my mom would wreck your dad. Army training is no match for an angry Latin mother," Scott laughed as he unbuckled his seat belt. "Call your dad and let us know if we can finally go home and get a shower."

It was nice for Danny to finally stretch his legs. The car was cramped on short trips, and the occasional break to buy food was not enough for a guy used to running daily.

He and Scott walked into the gas station, well aware of the scruff on their faces and the odour from their bodies. A few of the customers looked at them, but nobody said anything when they headed to the bathroom. The first thing Danny did was splash water in his face to make sure he really was awake.

"How do hippies do this?" Scott asked as he scrubbed his armpits with wet paper towels. He then slung them into the trashcan with a disgusted face.

TW

"Hey, Daddy," Allison said as her father answered his cell phone on the third ring.

"Where are you?" He yelled into the phone. It was loud enough that the clerk stared at her and stepped as far away as the cord would allow.

"You calm down and listen to me," Allison demanded. Her dad snarled into the phone but didn't say anything. She took that as an agreement. "Dad, I'm not telling you where I am until you promise me that you're aren't going to kill anyone.

"I'm being metaphorical," she called to the clerk who was clearly eavesdropping on her conversation.

"Allison, honey, you know the rules."

"I also know that mom died months ago by suicide, Dad. You told me you were there. Is that a lie?"

"No, Allison, your mom did kill herself," Chris Argent sighed into the phone. "Your friend Lydia told me all about what Scott's been doing. We can't let that keep happening."

"Dad, Lydia is kind of crazy. Remember?"

"Then why didn't the young man with her, the same one you ran off with, disagree with her? What was his name? Andy?"

Allison wanted to punch somebody, but she just dug her fingernails into her palms. Three days of minimal sleep had reduced her patience to almost nothing.

"Danny, Dad, his name is Danny and he was coming to tell me that my dad is a psychopath. God, you just won't listen to reason, will you?" she whispered into the phone hatefully as she glared at the sales clerk who kept watching her out of the corner of his eye. "If you don't promise me that..."

"Sir, we've got it," a voice said on the other end of the phone. Allison recognized it as one of her dad's men. One of the hunters.

"Shit!" she yelled as she slammed the phone onto the hook and ran to the Men's restroom. She threw open the door and yelled at Danny and Scott. "We need to move. He traced the call."

TW

Stiles sat in science class, staring more empty seat than he should be. Lydia had gone missing the same night as Danny, Scott, and Allison, but the hospital security footage he and Scott's mom watched showed she wasn't with them. All he saw was Allison attack her own father and the three teenagers haul ass out of the hospital.

Nobody could contact Allison's dad, either. The only ones still in the school from the werewolf club were himself and Isaac. Stiles had asked Isaac if he knew anything that was going on, but all he knew was that the last time anyone had seen Lydia was it was at the Hale House. They were interrogating Danny about the whole zombie thing when the Argents showed up and scared the wolves off. Derek was apparently still worried about not having a full pack.

School was supposed to take his mind off of his catatonic father and his missing best friend, but since Stiles never paid attention to what the teachers were saying on a good day he had found the last few to be rather difficult. Everyone treated him differently, too.

"Mr. Stilinski?"

Looking up from the daze her had been in, Stiles saw the school guidance counsellor standing at the doorway to the classroom. He wiped the drool from his mouth before answering. "Yo, what's up?"

"I asked if you would please come with me," she said, motioning him with her hands.

His teacher nodded his approval and Stiles stood up, knocking all of his stuff off his desk and onto the floor. Everyone kind of silently watched as he gathered his stuff. Isaac handed him a pencil that had rolled in direction but said nothing.

When his things were gathered, Stiles kind of walked past Ms. Morell and she shut the door behind them. They walked down the hall towards her office, the only sounds were her shoes clacking on the floor and his shuffling.

"Stiles, that's what you like to be called, right?" she asked as touched his arm kindly. She offered a warm smile as she opened the door to her office and ushered him inside.

"Yeah," he answered as he collapsed into the chair in front of her desk. "Stiles is fine."

She closed the door and sat behind her desk. She smiled again at Stiles. It was reassuring and made him feel slightly less terrible. "I want you to know that this is a safe space. You can talk about anything here. Your dad, your runaway friends, anything."

As much as he appreciated the sentiment, Stiles doubted that if he told her half the things he wanted to she'd believe him, and the other half would have her committing him in the padded cell just down from his father.

"I really don't know what to say," Stiles told her as he fidgeted with his pant leg. "I mean, thanks for getting me out of class, I guess."

"You could always tell me about how you're doing. Not what is happening, but what you're thinking. What you're feeling."

"I guess I'm feeling like I want to go home."

"You know I can't do that," she chuckled.

"It was worth a try," he shrugged.

TW

"Do you have any idea where we're going?" Scott asked Allison as she blew through yet another stop sign.

"South," was all she would specify. "If we go South, we might throw them off our location. It's slim, but it's a chance. I was so stupid! I shouldn't have used a land line."

They'd been on the road for six hours. They'd crossed the bridge and were already well into Oregon.

"We're going back to Beacon Hills, aren't we?" Danny asked Allison from the passenger seat. You want to hide in plain sight."

"At least one of you figured it out," Allison laughed as she reached over and stroked Danny's face. "I don't want to, but I think we need to contact Derek Hale and have him hide you out, Scott."

"He kind of hates us," Scott countered. "I mean, I kind of betrayed the whole wolf pack hierarchy and you're the daughter of the man trying to kill him. He might like Danny, though."

"He doesn't seem like the type to like anybody," Danny offered. "I mean, I've met him all of once and he kind of strangled me."

"He does that to everyone," Scott joked with half a smile. The smile fell when he saw that Danny didn't find it funny. "Listen, guys, thanks for this. I'm sorry."

"It's my dad trying to kill you," Allison pointed out. "And Danny is the one who made Beacon Hills zombie central. If anything, we should be apologizing to you."

Scott had no response to that, so he just sat back in silence and thought of what to do. Why would Allison's father be so trigger happy based solely on Lydia's word? Allison's mom had committed suicide. They all knew it. And surely Mr. Argent, of all people, would understand why Scott did what he did. Even if it were just emotions, surely three days later things would have calmed down and he'd be reasonable. It made no sense no matter how he looked at it, unless...

"He's not trying to kill us." Scott leaned into the space in the front of the car between Danny and Allison and repeated himself. "You dad isn't trying to kill me, Allison. He's trying to figure out what is going on. He wants to know how I could kill your mom when she's already dead."

"You're being annoyingly optimistic, Scott," Allison groused. "If he didn't want to kill you, why did he quote The Code at me?"

"Okay, maybe he wanted to kill me the first night, but after that he was more worried about finding you than me."

"And this came from where?" Danny asked as he fidgeted with his seat belt. "It's weak, Scott."

"It's better than running forever," Scott argued as he resumed his place in the back of the car. "Let's just go home and get it over with. No Derek Hale, just me, your dad, and the truth."

"That's really not a good idea, Scott," Allison warned.

"Do you have a better one? Because I sure as hell don't," Scott said. Allison's silence was taken as evidence that she didn't.

TW

The car pulled into the driveway and Melissa McCall was certain that it was Scott coming home to her. She was certain it was every time a car drove by, but when she looked out the window and saw three tired teenagers climbing out into the darkness, she had no doubts.

"Scott?" she yelled as she threw open the door and ran into the yard in her pyjamas and robe. One of the teens looked at her and was clearly terrified, but she didn't care. It was definitely him. "Scott!"

Within seconds, Melissa had crossed her yard and was holding her son. Scott protested, but she ignored him. Then she pushed him into the car and slapped him.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you run off like that? And all I get is one text message? After two days? I'm going to be some sense into you if you don't tell me right now what the hell you were thinking."

"It was all me, Ms. McCall," Allison pleased as she stepped forward. "I told Scott we should go to Seattle for a few days. You know, just to hang out."

"Get your asses in my house. All of you," Melissa ordered when she saw the neighbours standing in their doorways and at their windows. "I swear, you two had better be glad you aren't mine, because I'm tempted to knock your heads together."

When they were all in the house, Melissa saw Stiles hiding at the top of the stairs trying to covertly get information from Scott.

"Get down here, Stiles," she sighed as she threw up her hands. "If we're going to have this conversation, you might as well be there instead of eavesdropping.

TW

Danny really wasn't sure what to expect. He knew that Scott's mom knew about the werewolf thing, and the Kanima stuff. But talking about it with someone old enough to buy alcohol was new to him.

So he sat and listened. He listened to Scott's mom alternate between adoring her son and threatening him; Allison doing her best to cover her tracks; Stiles asking stupid questions; and Scott just trying to tell a modified version of the truth. Scott told his mom about everything but Allison's dad.

"I need to go home," Danny interrupted as he stood up. His head couldn't take it. He wasn't ready. It was too much. When the adrenaline was pumping he could handle it. When he was running from something he could handle it. When it was a secret and nobody could know he could handle it.

"Was it something I said?" Stiles asked as Danny bolted out the door.

Danny heard Scott's mom yelling as he ran into the front yard of the McCall family home. Someone grabbed his arm and stopped him. That it was Scott was no surprise at all.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked as he looked up at Danny. It was funny how, up until this point, Danny never noticed he was so much taller than Scott. "Dude, I know it's freaky, but it's going to be fine."

"You can't know that," Danny said as he shrugged Scott's arm off.

"I do know that!" Scott shouted after Danny.

Turning around, Danny marched up to Scott and looked him right in the eye. "It's impossible to know it."

"I do."

Danny kissed Scott. He leaned down and held him and moaned words against his lips that even he couldn't understand. Then he opened his eyes and saw Scott staring up at him with a smile. Then he saw Scott's mom standing in the doorway looking shocked. Stiles was giving them the thumbs up. And Allison was walking back into the house.

When he thought about Allison, Danny broke away from Scott and ran to his car. Nobody called after him this time. Nobody stopped him.

He was three blocks away when he heard the voice. "Drive."

TW

The moonlight danced in Lydia's hair as she made a crown of leaves. The car pulled up, just as Peter promised it would, and she smiled. She smiled as Peter opened the car door and threw Danny at her feet. She placed the newly constructed crown on his head and touched lifted his head with her hand.

"What did you bring me?" Lydia asked Peter as she touched her nose to Danny's. "Why, I do believe it's broken."

"Not broken, Love," Peter told her as he lifted Danny to his feet and brushed the dirt from his clothes. "He's merely a little rattled. He'll be a good as new in no time."

"Not before we're done with him, I hope." Lydia walked around Danny, feeling every inch of him. "It really is a waste. He could've been something."

"But he will, my love. He'll be something special." Peter nibbled on Danny's ear. "We're going to be a very happy family."

"Goodie," Lydia clapped as she spun around, kicking up little clouds of dirt. "How do we start?"

"The way any family starts. By sharing blood." Peter grew his fangs out and bit his wrist. Blood trailed down his arm as he raised Danny's. He licked his forearm before sinking his fangs in and drawing blood. Peter held his wrist to Danny's arm as he nuzzled his neck. Then he looked at Lydia invitingly.

"I think I'm going to love my family," Lydia whispered to the trees as she cut her palm open with a jagged rock. "In fact, I already do."

She kissed Peter deeply as she pressed her own wound to Danny and Peter's. She then kissed Danny, as he stared off into space.

"He doesn't like it," Lydia pouted before biting Danny's lip. She drew blood. It tasted of copper and salt. "He doesn't like me."

"My dear, he's just getting to know you: the real you," Peter assured her as he licked the blood trickling from Danny's wounded lip. "Soon, he'll it all."

TW

After everyone left or went to bed, Stiles sat on Scott's bed waiting for Scott to get out of the shower. He had so many questions that he couldn't have asked in front of Scott's mom. Scott walked into his room with wet hair and damp pyjamas. He looked better, Stiles mused. Smelled better, too.

"What?" Scott asked as walked to his window and looked outside.

"Danny was already out there with a boombox declaring his love for you, but you were still in the shower and I threw rocks at him," Stiles joked.

"What's a boombox?"

"We need to have you watch more 80s movies, my friend," Stiles said with a shake of his head. He patted the comforter and motioned with his neck for Scott to join him. "Sit down. I promise I won't get mad if you try to make out with me."

"You're an idiot," Scott laughed as he sat beside his best friend. "I didn't see Allison leave."

"She slipped out the back while you were slipping Danny the tongue," Stiles informed Scott. "I missed you."

"It was a pretty impromptu trip," Scott admitted. "I'm shocked I was only grounded for five years."

"So, why did you really leave? I noticed you didn't mention the whole killing the undead thing to your mom," Stiles whispered in Scott's ear even though his mom was out of hearing range.

"Allison's dad kind of had a freakout. I guess Lydia told him everything."

"Everything?"

"Oh, you don't know. I forgot. Your mom wasn't the only one to come back," Scott confessed in a low voice. He hung his head and leaned against Stiles. "See, where Lydia killed your mom, I killed Allison's mom. Ages ago. And Lydia told Mr. Argent like it was no big deal. I guess. Danny was there when she did it."

"Why was your boyfriend there?" Stiles twiddled his thumbs. In theory he was fine with Scott liking boys, but there was something weird about his best friend being into a guy that didn't really like him. "You left a lot of details out, and you're lucky your mom was too pissed off to notice."

"Danny said Lydia was hanging out with Derek's pack. At the Hale House. Isaac brought him out because Derek wanted to know about the stone. All kinds of weirdness. I don't know."

"Lydia is missing, too, you know. Some folks thought she'd run off with you guys. Clearly, that wasn't the case. I mean, she could be anywhere. She's been back in crazy town ever since my mom died."

Stiles didn't get an answer. Instead, he got Scott's head collapsing in his lap as he snoozed.

"Totally wasted on me," Stiles sighed as he flopped back onto Scott's bed.


	9. Chapter 9

The moment he walked in her bedroom door, Allison jumped up from her bed and threw a punch at her father. Without the element of surprise to aid her, he easily dodged it and pulled her into a disarming embrace.

"Stop it," he ordered as he let her go. He stepped back and closed her bedroom door. "I called off the hunt last night."

"Thanks, I guess," Allison replied darkly as she sat on her bed. "What were you doing? Grabbing him in the middle of the hospital? You tracked us across three states!"

"I was mad. I guess I haven't moved on from your mom's death as much as I thought."

"You were going to kill him."

Allison did her best not to look at her father as he sat beside her. Thankfully, he made no attempt at touching her.

"I want to tell you I wasn't, but I can't. I don't know what I was going to do. I don't remember much of that night other than being scared of you."

"Scared? Of me?" Allison's eyes flicked to her father's face for a second before resuming their inspection of her floor.

A hand touched her shoulder but she jerked away. There was a crack in her father's voice that Allison had heard only twice before: when her mother died, and when they'd buried her Aunt Kate.

"You were off the radar, Allison. You used every trick we knew and I underestimated you. Until you called me, we had no idea where you were. We had people looking for you in Arizona and San Francisco."

"San Francisco? That's unusually specific."

Chris Argent cleared his throat. "Yes, well, when you ran off with Scott and his new boyfriend, we had an inkling that you three may head there."

Allison's eyes widened as she remembered the events of the night prior. She saw Danny kissing Scott and she felt a disembodied ache that needed suppressed.

"Scott is not dating Danny," she replied quietly as she balled her blanket in her fists. "Where would you even get an idea like that?"

"Your friend Lydia told me in front of that one kid. He never disagreed. I thought you knew."

Allison laughed deeply and coldly. "Dad, I was stuck in a car with them for three days. If anything were happening, I would know."

"You didn't know Scott was a werewolf for months," he pointed out.

When she found she didn't have a comeback, Allison simply stood up and approached her door. She opened it and stared at her father. "Get the hell out and stay the hell away from my friends. Besides, I have to finish getting ready for school."

"Sweetheart," he started sympathetically as he stood up and walked to her.

"GET OUT!" Allison screamed as she pushed him into the hall and slammed her door. She fought back the tears as she grabbed her brush and looked in the mirror.

TW

The Earth was spinning counterclockwise as Danny stumbled through the woods. He tripped over loose stone and slammed into a tree as he tried to remember what had happened. His body was weak, but all he got were flashes of Scott kissing him and fangs digging into his arm. It still throbbed and was red and inflamed. Thankfully, when he woke up it had stopped bleeding.

He had no idea where the car was. His parents probably didn't even know he was back home. If that's where he was. After twenty minutes of walking, Danny was still lost. He hadn't so much as seen a road or train tracks.

Growling from his stomach made him aware that he was hungry. He'd barely eaten for days. His empty stomach protested its poor treatment by sending shooting pains through his body every time he moved. All he wanted to do was go back to sleep. His brain wouldn't let him, though. As tired as his body was, he kept telling himself to keep moving, to find some sort of civilization.

Another hour passed before Danny found any sign of life. It was a ranger station, of all things. There was a truck parked out front and a gravel road that stretched and wound itself out of Danny's line of sight. He pounded on the door, unable to speak. It opened and a short but muscular woman appeared.

"Are you okay?" she asked as she helped hold Danny up and walk into the station. "We haven't had someone show up here lost in ages. Sit down, I'll get you some water."

Danny hadn't even noticed he was thirsty.

As the ranger grabbed him a bottle of water from a mini-fridge, Danny's head swam with half-remembered images and daydreams. He could almost see what happened, but it was fuzzy: like his brain had been wrapped in cotton. The ranger shoved the bottle in Danny's hands and helped him drink.

"I'm going to call you an ambulance. You don't look so good," she told him even as he didn't answer. "Looks like something something big bit you. You're lucky to be alive."

TW

Stiles walked through the halls at school. with Scott as everyone stared at him. Beacon Hills hadn't had any runaways since Erica and Boyd disappeared.

"Dude, ignore them," Stiles told his friend. "In two days they'll forget about you and move onto the next big thing."

"I'm not worried about me," Scott confessed as he stopped and opened his locker. "I'm worried about Allison. I haven't seen or heard from her since last night."

"Watching your ex suck face with someone else will do that to you," Stiles commented as he reached into Scott's locker and grabbed something off the bottom. "Ooh, chocolate. You mind?"

"Help yourself," Scott said wearily as he stuck his head in his locker and sighed. He pulled it out and turned around with typical werewolf speed. "Isaac."

"Scott," the blond kid nodded in response. "We need to leave."

"We're on our way to history. Maybe during lunch?" Stiles suggested suspiciously.

"No. Now. And I would say to do it alone, but I know Scott won't leave without you." Isaac looked Stiles up and down and shrugged.

"Works for me. I didn't do my history homework anyway," Stiles consented as he casually threw his stuff in Scott's locker and opened the candy bar. "So, where are we going?"

"We're going to find Lydia and find out what she thinks she's doing," Allison answered as she walked up to the trio. She looked at Scott with an unreadable face. "You should know that nobody has seen Danny since he left your house. He never went home. And my dad called off the hunt. Just so you know."

Stiles watched as Isaac looked between Allison and Scott, picking up on the tension. Isaac snapped his fingers but didn't say anything.

"So, do we know where we're going?" Stiles asked casually as he bit into the chocolate bar. "I mean, you must have some idea of where to start."

"Actually, we don't," Isaac confessed. "You're her stalker, so maybe you have an idea?"

"Thanks," Stiles said sarcastically with a mouthful of candy. "Is Derek coming along? Because I don't like him."

"He's not. For his own sake," Allison replied scathingly. "It's just the four of us."

"Guys, is anyone else worried about the fact that Danny didn't go home?" Scott interrupted awkwardly. Stiles watched as Allison made sure not to look at anyone and Isaac raised a curious eyebrow.

"I still don't get it," Isaac commented as he began walking away. "You two have nothing in common."

The other three followed Isaac down the hall, ignoring the morning bell warning everyone to go to class. It was weird and quiet as they burst out of the school and onto the empty grounds.

"So, we have absolutely no idea where we're going to look for her?" Stiles asked again as they climbed into Allison's SUV. He noted that Isaac and Scott opted to sit in the back, leaving him up front with an increasingly uncomfortable Allison.

"I did just have one idea, but we have to go to the Hale House. Derek won't be there," Isaac assured Allison.

"You had better hope he isn't," Allison warned as she started her vehicle.

TW

They were combing the Hale House for clues when Scott's phone rang. It was his mom, and he winced before answering it. "Hi, Mom."

"First of all, why aren't you in school? AGAIN? You just got home, Scott. Work is breathing down my neck as it is about my son and his friends fighting here, I don't need you making it worse."

"I'm looking for my friend, Lydia. Remember her?" Scott answered as he held the phone away from his ear. Everyone else was making an obvious effort not to look at him.

"You could do that after school, you know," Scott's mom chastised angrily. Then there was a moment of silence and his mom's voice softened. "Scott, the other reason I called is because that friend of yours, Andy? He was admitted to the hospital and he's asking for you. I told him I'd let you know."

"His name is Danny, Mom. And thanks," Scott whispered into the phone.

As soon as he hung up, Scott was being dragged onto the porch by Isaac. He shut the door and pulled Scott to the stairs. "Go, I'll let Allison and Stiles know why you left."

"What do you know?" Scott asked Isaac nervously as he crossed his arms.

"Well, considering you came to Derek and asked if being a werewolf makes you gay, and you're suddenly best friends with Danny Mahealani, it's not hard to figure it out," Isaac laughed. "Look, whatever you do is your business. We'll find Lydia and figure out what's going on."

"Thanks," Scott said as he jumped off the porch, scattering the leaves on the ground. "I owe you one."

"I still can't believe coach was right!" Isaac called as Scott took off running.

TW

Peter Hale paced back and forth as Lydia drew things in the dust with her fingers. There was a sun, a house, and a beast eating a woman in her picture. She wrote "Not Wolf" under it before wiping the dust from her finger on her dirty skirt. She hadn't changed clothes in days, though how many she couldn't remember. It didn't matter. Until she and Peter had finished what they had started, nothing really mattered.

"Why can't we find it?!" Peter yelled at the ceiling of the abandoned house. They'd been staying there since they released Danny. He looked at Lydia and began recapping. "We thought maybe it was tied to the kids. When we ran them out of town, it didn't follow like we hoped. A man died last night."

"Did we know him?" Lydia asked as she began adding the corpse of a dead man to her picture.

"No, but the hunters found him. That's why we can't stay in one spot too long like you want," Peter told Lydia as he knelt down and kissed her forehead. "And we still don't know what happened to the sheriff. I want to write it off as a breakdown, but something tells me it's not that simple."

"You know what is simple?" Lydia asked Peter as she looked up at him.

"What would that be, my dear?" he wondered.

Lydia smacked her hand on the floor and erased her picture, leaving only the words "Not Wolf" on the floor. She reached up and touched Peter's face with her palm, leaving a smudge of dust behind. "Why, we can just ask Scott to help. I know where he is."

"How do you know that?" Peter asked Lydia as he placed a hand on her shoulders. "How could you possibly know that? You've been here with me all day."

"Because I know where our son is. Blood is a very strong bond," Lydia played with the bandage on her left palm from where she'd cut it open the night before. "Wherever he is, Scott is bound to be nearby. And I don't think we can do this alone anymore. It's been too long and we can't have them running off and leaving us to clean up the mess."

"You seem to forget I started the mess," Peter reminded Lydia as he pulled her close and held her. He smelled her matted hair and sighed. "I opened the door. You shut it."

"You cracked it open," Lydia corrected as she whispered the words against his chest. "They are the ones who knocked it down. We stopped anymore from coming out, but they are the ones who let them through."

"I'll go," Peter offered as he wiped the dust from his face. "I'll tell them."

With a sigh, Lydia grabbed Peter's hand. "We will tell them. I miss my son."

"It's not even been a day," Peter reminded her. "We will take him with us, but first we need to finish this."

"Let's make a deal," Lydia offered as she kissed Peter on his clean cheek. "You deal with one problem, I'll deal with the other."

TW

"Nothing!" Allison exclaimed as she kicked the banister of the Hale House stairs. "We've been looking for hours and we have nothing. Why did you drag us out here?"

Isaac cleared his throat and stepped away from Allison, clearly remembering the time she sliced him up like a Christmas ham. "Hey, look, the last time anyone saw her she was here. It's a logical first place to start."

"There's something you aren't telling us," Stiles noted as he smoked a pretend pipe. "I wonder what it is."

"Peter has her," Allison guessed.

"No way, why would he... Does Derek's creepy uncle have Lydia?" Stiles asked Isaac as he grabbed the front of his shirt. When Isaac grew out his claws and tapped Stiles' cheek, he let him go and smoothed out his shirt. "So, um, yeah."

"We think so. Derek is trying to track them, but he's coming up with nothing. The only reason we found Peter last time was because Lydia tipped us off. Now I'm starting to wonder if that wasn't their plan."

"Their plan?" Allison got in Isaac's face, but unlike Stiles she didn't back down when he showed her his claws. She grabbed her knife from her leg holster and held it up. "Wanna bet mine is sharper than yours?"

"Hold up!" Stiles said as he carefully separated Allison and Isaac. Then he pointed at Allison. "You! Put that away. Why the hell would you even have it with you right now? We were at school!"

"The school didn't seem to care," was all she offered as she put her knife back in its sheath and covered it with her pant leg.

"Now what is this you were saying about Peter and Lydia having a plan?" Stiles asked Isaac as the wolf retracted his claws. "Because last I knew you guys were supposed to have him on a leash."

"I'm just guessing here, but I think Peter and Lydia are still bonded from the whole making her crazy and coming back from the dead thing."

"You wouldn't be wrong," Peter interrupted as he walked into the house. Allison reached for her knife, but before she could grab it Peter had thrown her into the wall. "I really don't want anymore dramatics. Please. I just want to talk."

"What about?" Stiles asked cautiously as he sized Peter up. "Where is Lydia?"

"She's fine, actually. She's visiting with your friends Scott and Danny right now."

Stiles noticed Allison's gaze harden as she stood, but she said nothing.

"Where have you been?" Isaac asked as he got in Peter's face. "Man, Derek is going to kill you."

"I highly doubt that," Peter argued as he casually pushed Isaac away and strode over to Stiles. He stood behind the boy and put a hand on each shoulder. "You see, the last time he killed me I was outnumbered. This time, I'm not looking for a fight. I'm here to ask for your help."

"Why would I help you?" Allison spat.

"Because I know what killed your cousin, and I know that it wasn't a werewolf," Peter answered calmly as he inhaled Stiles' scent.

"Of course, the one time someone wants to touch me it's a paedophile," Stiles sighed.

TW

"Hello?" Scott asked as he stuck his head in Danny's hospital room. "I seem to see you a lot around these parts."

"Come on in," Danny laughed from his bed. "You just missed my parents. They went to get something to eat. I'm also grounded until I'm fifty."

"Same. And I, uh, bought these in the gift shop," Scott said as he walked into the room wearing a lei. He handed one to Danny as he sat beside him. "There wasn't much I could get since I'm kinda broke."

"How very racist of you," Danny chuckled as he took the lei and put it on. "Thanks."

Danny noted that Scott wanted to say something but was holding back. "What?"

"What happened?" Scott asked him. "I mean, last night you said you were going home and instead you're here."

"I don't really know. I don't remember much after leaving your house," Danny admitted as he touched the bandage on his arm. "I just woke up in the middle of the woods with a bite on my arm and sick to my stomach. The latter went away when I met this little lady."

For emphasis, Danny reached up and tapped his IV bag.

"But that's not what you wanted to ask. Is it?" Danny looked into Scott's eyes. "You wanted to know why I asked for you, but you didn't want to look like a selfish tool."

"That could be a possibility," Scott confessed sheepishly.

"It's because I'm tired of avoiding the conversation. And last night kind of brought it out in the open."

"Danny, we should probably worry more about what the hell happened to you," Scott reasoned.

"I know you're right, but I don't care," Danny said as he leaned over and kissed Scott. It was brief, and Scott was caught off guard, but it was enough. "I like you. I like kissing you. I like spending time with you, but I don't know you."

Scott scoffed. "You don't know me? Really?"

"I know about you, Scott. I know things about you, but I don't know you. I don't know your middle name, or your favourite colour, or the kind of music you listen to when you're not trying to impress people," Danny rambled. "Let's be honest, it's not like we were really friends before all of this."

"I thought we were," Scott said nervously as he looked out the side of his eyes. "Friends, I mean."

"Oh." Danny looked up at the ceiling before looking back at Scott.

"It's fine," Scott assured Danny as he grabbed his hand. "We can get to know each other. And my favourite colour is red."

"And you're fine being seen with me? Holding my hand in the hallway at school? Because I don't date closet cases."

"Danny, you know Coach has been trying to set me up with you for months. Right?" Scott smiled as he nodded. "Honestly, the only thing I'm not looking forward to..."

"Is telling Allison?"

Scott and Danny both looked over at the doorway as Lydia walked into the room. She was filthy, her clothes covered in dried mud and Scott was surprised he hadn't smelled her body odour sooner. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and sat on Danny's other side. She tried to caress his face and he leaned as far away from her as his bed would allow.

"Lydia, where have you been? Everyone's been looking for you!" Scott exclaimed as he felt Danny's hand squeeze his rather roughly. He looked at Danny and saw that he had gone pale.

"I've been busy planning our future," Lydia answered as she reached over and grabbed Danny's injured arm. With surprising strength, she rolled him over to her and ripped the bandaged off. The wound had been cleaned but hadn't healed.

Danny jerked free from Lydia's grip and pushed her to the floor. "What are you doing?"

She stood and looked from Scott to Danny. "I'm here to clean up the mess you two created. Surely you haven't forgotten your precious 'necrostone'? Silly boys and their need to name everything like a comic book."

"Lydia, it's over. You destroyed it. Remember?" Scott stood up and grabbed her by the arms. "You aren't acting like yourself. What's going on?"

Viciously, Lydia slammed her forehead into Scott's. While he was dazed, she elbowed him in the gut and knocked him down. Then she climbed into Danny's bed and tried to hold him. He again pushed her out and she fell to the floor.

"That is NOT how you treat your mother, young man!" Lydia shouted as she rose to her feet and slapped Danny in the face.

Scott stood up and restrained Lydia, making sure to put his wolf strength into it without hurting her.

"What the hell?" Danny yelled at Scott.

"You know her better than I do!" Scott responded.

"Do you need any help in here?" a nurse asked as she stuck her head in the room. "I heard shouting."

"We're fine," Danny answered with a wave. "Our friend here just got mad. We're fine."

"Well, I'm going to ask you to keep it down or I'll have security escort both of your friends out."

"We will," Scott promised.

Lydia tilted her head and gave the nurse a small wave of her own. "We'll be good."

"Okay. And I know your mom, Scott. Watch yourself," the nurse warned as she shut the door.

The two teenaged boys waited a few seconds in silence before Danny finally spoke up.

"Lydia, just what do you think you're doing?" Danny asked her. He was doing his best to remain calm, but what had been a rather bizarre few days was only getting weirder. It had been nice to have about two minutes of normalcy.

"I just want this all to be over so I can have my family back."

"Someone has your parents?" Scott asked as he let Lydia go and stood between her and Danny. "Lydia, is that where you've been? Did you escape?"

She shook her head and looked longingly at Danny. "No, MY family. My husband and my son."

"We didn't get married. I swear. I think," Danny assured Scott as he stared at Lydia with wide eyes.

With a giggle, Lydia walked to the window at stared into the sky. "Of course we didn't get married. Silly. Don't you remember last night? When we adopted you?" Lydia held up her left hand and ripped off a bandage, showing off a nasty looking gash.

"Who? What? You know what happened to me last night?" Danny asked as he grabbed for the IV stand. Scott helped him stand up. "What do you mean you adopted me, Lydia?"

"You can call me 'Mommy'," she insisted as she continued staring into the sky. "It would make me very happy if you did."

"Not happening," Danny fumed as he leaned on Scott. He also winked when he noticed Scott lean back to stare at his butt. "What did you do to me?"

"I made us family. My blood runs through your veins. As does your father's."

Danny wanted to vomit.

"Who is it?" Scott growled at Lydia as he began to morph into his wolf form. Suddenly, Danny was less freaked out and more scared. "Who is this father you keep talking about?"

TW

Allison stood behind Isaac. He didn't trust her not to try to kill Peter. She proved that he had good reason.

"How did you know about my cousin? Nobody knew about her. Not even Scott," Allison demanded. It took everything Isaac had to calm her down and it wasn't really working. "Who told you about Rory?"

"Told? I watched. I watched it kill her, and I watched your father and his men cover it up. And it wasn't a wolf," Peter said with a slight bow. "I always hate to see someone die needlessly."

"Why were you there?" Stiles asked from the side. "You say you watched. Why didn't you do anything?"

"I didn't know who she was," Peter replied lewdly as he ran his eyes up and down Stiles' body. "If I had, I might have helped. Though, which side I'm not saying."

Allison kicked Isaac in the back, knocking him to the floor. She leaped over him and pulled out her knife. With little effort, Peter batted her to the side. She hit the wall, again. Isaac was just glad she hadn't stabbed him this time.

"She just refuses to learn," Peter sighed with a shake of his head. Then he looked at Stiles. "Come here."

"I'm good," Stiles refused as he put up his hands.

"Now." Peter accompanied his order with a snarl and a baring of his teeth.

Reluctant, Stiles obeyed. Peter whispered something in Stiles' ear. Isaac tried to listen but even with his wolf hearing he couldn't make it out.

"Go ahead. Tell him," Peter told Stiles with a slap on the butt.

"Tell me what?" Isaac approached Stiles slowly, leery of Peter. He saw that Allison was still on the floor, seemingly unconscious. "Stiles?"

"He said you're cuter than me," Stiles groaned. "Even the paedophiles. I swear!"

With a scream Allison jumped on Peter's back and swung her knife down. Peter caught her arm and twisted it. She dropped the knife and gasped in pain. Like a ragdoll, Peter flung Allison across the room. Isaac dove and caught her. When he caught her, Peter was already out the door and calling out his farewell.

"I'll tell Lydia you all said hello. It would've saved so much time if he were here."

Stiles helped Allison up as Isaac ran out the door, but Peter was already gone.

"Where did he go?" Stiles yelled as he ran onto the porch. "He has Lydia, damn it! Where did he go?"

"I don't know," Isaac admitted as he scanned the treeline. "He knows how to cover his scent and I don't."

"I do," Allison said as she walked past both teens. She pulled out her cell phone and showed off what looked like a radar screen. "I slipped a tracking device on him. Get in the car."

Isaac could have sworn he saw her smile.

TW

Scott held Danny up as Lydia danced in the sunbeams falling through the hospital room window. She hummed a song he didn't recognize.

"I need to sit down, Scott," Danny gasped as he struggled to breathe. "Tell me I didn't hear her say that."

"You did," Scott reluctantly confirmed as he helped Danny get back in his hospital bed. "She said it was Peter."

"I've only met him a few times, but he's creepy."

"Yeah, he is," Scott agreed as he turned to Lydia.

She was spinning in a small circle and smiling. Scott didn't even think Lydia was this out of it when Peter was dead. Whatever he'd done to her, it was bad.

"Lydia, how exactly did you and Peter 'adopt' Danny? What did you do?" Scott asked as he led her to the chair beside Danny's bed. She reached out to Danny and Scott pleadingly nodded.

Danny reluctantly held Lydia's hand and she seemed to relax.

"We shared blood. Blood makes family. Danny and Peter are my family," Lydia answered in a breathy voice as she looked longingly at a grossed out Danny.

"It doesn't make everyone family," Scott whispered under his breath as he thought of his father. "Lydia, I need you to talk to me. Where is Peter now? Why did you make Danny part of your family?"

"We needed him. We need him to find it. Danny is the key that will lock the door."

"Don't you mean unlock?" Scott asked despite having no idea what she was talking about.

For his troubles, Lydia looked at him like he was an idiot. "No, dummy. We already closed the door when I broke the stone. But we need to kill it to lock it, and we hoped Danny would help us do it since he opened it. It didn't work, but it's okay. I have a son now."

"What do you need to kill, Lydia?" Scott pressed. He could tell Danny wanted Lydia gone, but they needed answers.

"The kitty cat. What else?" Lydia answered before perking up. She let go of Danny's hand and ran to the window. She jumped up and down as she looked into the parking lot, before whirling around and looking at Danny. "Daddy's here!"

Scott ran to the window and saw Peter casually strolling into the hospital. He turned around and looked at Danny. "I am so sorry."

"I need to get out of here," Danny replied as he ripped the IV out of his hand. Alarms started blaring as he stood up. Blood dripped on the floor. "Scott, you need to get me out of here."

"Lydia, sorry, but we're going for a walk," Scott told her as he grabbed Danny's bloody hand and held him up. "Can you let Peter know we'll be right back?"

"You can't leave now! Daddy will be here any second," Lydia pleaded as she grabbed Danny's other hand. He jerked free just as a nurse stormed in. Scott was relieved to see that it wasn't his mother.

"What are you doing? Get back in that bed!" she ordered as she pointed at Danny. "Look at you. You're bleeding."

"I'm afraid I can't stay," Danny insisted as he pressed for Scott to help him leave. "Now, if you'll excuse me."

"You aren't going anywhere," the nurse told him before crumpling. Peter stepped over her unconscious body.

"I'm afraid I have to disagree. This simply isn't a proper place for my new family to stay," Peter chuckled as he walked over and hugged Danny and Scott.

Scott was too stunned to know how to react.

"Now, boys, we have all the time in the world to talk, we just can't do it here," Peter said as he moved on from them and took Lydia by the hand. "If you'll come with me, I'll answer any questions I can."


	10. Chapter 10

"You're sure this is where the tracer leads?" Isaac asked as they pulled up to front of the hospital.

"Positive," Allison confirmed as she showed him the beeping dot. "Why would he come here?"

"Dad!" Stiles cried as he scrambled out of Allison's SUV.

"That's not why he's here," Isaac told Allison as they watched Stiles fly into the hospital. They both winced when Stiles ploughed into a woman in a wheelchair and slammed face first into the reception desk.

"Oh, and you know?" Allison looked at Isaac suspiciously even though she agreed.

He rolled his eyes and opened the driver's side door. "Remember how Scott up and left?"

"Yes..." Allison answered angrily.

"That's the awkward thing. See, I was supposed to tell you and Stiles why. I kind of didn't. It's weird to say it out loud, since you're his ex and all that."

"Why is Scott at the hospital? Did his mom call or something?"

"Actually, yes!" Isaac nodded as he exited the car and closed the door. Allison climbed out and stared at him, waiting for the rest of the explanation. "Danny is here. I don't know why, but he was asking for Scott."

Much to Isaac's relief, Allison didn't press the point. What she did do was slam her door shut with more force than was necessary.

"We're kind of on our own from here. It's not specific enough to tell us which floor to look on," Allison explained as she put her phone back in her pocket. "I need you to use your heightened senses to find Peter. He's the only one who knows what is going on and I want to know what it is before I kill him."

There was nothing for Isaac to say to that. Allison still hated the Hales for her mother's death, even if it was a lot more complicated than she was willing to admit. He wondered if she even knew that her mother had tried to kill Scott the night Derek bit her. Derek had filled the pack in on what all happened after that failure of a night.

Sometimes, when he least expected it, Isaac really found himself missing Boyd and Erica.

What he didn't miss was crazy coincidences like the very people they were looking for walking out the hospital doors just as they were walking in them.

"YOU!" Allison screamed as she ran at Peter unarmed. When we move to casually smack her aside as he had done back at the Hale House, she ducked under it and delivered a punch to his groin. Peter, unsurprisingly, doubled over in pain.

"Stop!" Lydia cried as she threw herself in front of Peter, taking Allison's kick to the chest.

Allison gasped as she bent over Lydia, ignoring her revenge on Peter. Panicked, she checked her friend's neck for a pulse.

"I came in peace," Peter wheezed as he straightened himself upright. "Why do you keep attacking us?"

"Us?" Isaac watched Allison ask as she looked from Peter to himself then down to Lydia. "What are you talking about?"

Peter straightened himself out and knelt next to Lydia, helping her to her feet as Allison stayed crouched.

"He means us," Lydia spoke between coughing fits as she slapped away Allison's hand.

"Why are you guys being so quiet?" Allison demanded as she looked over at Scott and Danny. Isaac was sure she saw what he himself just noticed. "Oh."

As if he were just figuring it out himself, Scott looked at his hand. His fingers were interlaced with Danny's. Isaac could hear his heart racing. "Oh."

"Can we do this somewhere else?" Danny finally asked. "In case you all forgot, I'm supposed to be upstairs and all I'm wearing is a hospital gown and boxers."

"You do have nice legs, though," Isaac joked with a wink.

"Everyone, in my car. Now." Allison ordered with a tired voice. She pointed at Lydia and Peter. "She rides up front, he rides in the back."

"There's only three seats in the back," Isaac reminded her.

"I know. I meant in the trunk," she clarified angrily. "We don't have time for arguments. Just go!"

TW

"This feels weird, dumb, and kind of contrived," Danny whispered in Scott's ear.

"You know, half of us can hear you," Isaac reminded Danny as Allison pulled into Scott's driveway.

They'd decided that Scott's house was as close as they would get to neutral ground. Danny was sort of relieved, because he really didn't want to go back to the Hale House yet again. Besides, there were no clothes for him to wear.

"Can I borrow something to wear?" Danny asked Scott as he wrapped his bleeding hand in his hospital gown. "This is all kinds of not flattering."

"I'll help him find something decent," Isaac volunteered as he slapped Danny on the back.

Collectively, they all climbed out of the car and Scott ran ahead of the rest to unlock the front door. It was undoubtedly an usual sight for the neighbours. Danny reckoned it wasn't often that a group of teenagers and one middle aged man all went into the same house in the middle of the afternoon while school was still in session.

His parents were going to kill him for running off yet again.

"Anyone thirsty?" Scott asked nervously as they all piled into the living room. Danny excused himself and headed up to Scott's bedroom.

The room looked much like it had every other time, but it no longer felt like the safe haven it did when Danny was still allowed his secrets. Everything had been dragged into the light kicking and screaming and his life was more of a mess than ever.

He sat on Scott's bed and stared at the half-bandaged bite on his arm. Lydia told him it was from a blood bonding ritual of sorts, if he understood her crazed ramblings correctly. It didn't make it hurt any less.

"The closet is that way," Isaac said as he knocked on the open bedroom door. "I mean, I know you've been out for awhile, but you can't be that confused by one."

"Ha. Ha." Danny stayed on the bed, not ready to get dressed and face the reality waiting for him downstairs. "What do you want?"

"To clear the air. Mostly to get away from Lydia's awful stench because I'm certain that she hasn't bathed in a week, but I thought you'd like to talk to someone a little more removed from the crazy than the rest." Isaac kicked the bedroom door shut and walked to the closet. He pulled out two random shirts and held them up for Danny. One was a plain green t-shirt, and the other a grey and red striped polo. "What do you want? Crazy werewolf shenanigans or sordid teenage love triangle?"

"Excuse me?" Danny asked as he caught the green t-shirt Isaac tossed to him.

"I figured the triangle was more of what you needed right now, since the werewolf stuff is waiting for you downstairs. And by waiting I mean Allison is already grilling Peter. Your boyfriend will recap anything we miss, I'm sure." Isaac grabbed the chair at Scott's desk and sat in it. "Look, I know we made out once, but I swear I'm not jealous."

"Ass," Danny muttered as he put Scott's shirt on. It was way too tight, but better than the alternative.

"Mine is great, but we're talking about you," Isaac nodded. "Look, I know you feel weird because we only know each other as teammates and I was the dork who lived across the street from Jackson, but feel free to use me as a sounding board. We can talk about how you feel it's selfish to get involved with Scott so soon after his breakup with Allison, or how you don't think it's a good idea considering just being friends with him got you tortured and stuck in the hospital. Or we can talk about how you're settling for Scott even though you're totally not over me."

"You think highly of yourself," Danny noted as he check to see if his hand was still bleeding where he'd ripped the IV out. He was happy to see it had finally stopped and had begun to clot. "And there more important things to worry about than my love life. Like why Lydia is suddenly channelling Annie Dutton."

"Who?"

"Never mind." Danny waved his hand and stood up slowly. He felt better than he had when he first arrived at the hospital, but he still didn't feel good. He started going through Scott's dresser looking for sweatpants or pyjamas. There was no way he'd be able to fit into Scott's jeans, no matter how hard he tried. "Why do you even care?"

"Scott is a friend of mine, and I'd like to think that would make us friends by extension. Besides, if anyone knows anything about a messed up life it's me. And is that his underwear drawer you're going through?" Danny rolled his eyes as Isaac leaned over the back of the chair to see what he was doing. "No offence, but it's a little early in your relationship for you two to be sharing that much."

"Shut up." Danny finally found a pair of pyjama bottoms and tried them on. Much like the shirt they were too tight, but not overly so. He could still breathe and that was a definite plus.

"Look, take my advice, and don't worry about Allison. Don't let Scott worry about her. She's a big girl and she'll be fine. Or she'll go insane and kill us all, but I think Lydia is gonna beat her to it. Oh, and a warning..."

"What warning is that?" Danny crossed his arms and stared Isaac in the eye.

"Don't hurt him." Isaac growled in Danny's face, but Danny didn't blink. "That's good. I like that. Let's go join the crazy parade downstairs."

TW

"I'm sorry you got left at the hospital. I didn't even know you were there!" Scott apologized to his phone as he heard Danny and Isaac come down the stairs. He hadn't wanted to listen in on their conversation, and Stiles calling had prevented him from acting on any possible temptation to do so. "Listen, I need to go. We're going to go find out what Peter know. I hope your dad is doing fine."

"Dad's the same," Stiles sadly told Scott into the phone. "And don't let that bisexual paedophile Peter touch you. See you tonight!"

"Why is he bisexual and I'm gay?" Scott yelled into the phone, but he didn't get an answer because Stiles had hung up.

He walked out of the kitchen and into the living room, happy to see that Allison and Peter hadn't started busting furniture over each others' heads yet. Lydia was sitting on Peter's lap in the recliner with her head on his chest. They were looking every bit as creepy as they were. Allison was perched on the coffee table, thankfully unarmed. Danny and Isaac were on opposite ends of the sofa. Scott jumped over the back and settled himself between them. He noticed that Danny rather quickly grabbed his hand and looked at Isaac. He also noticed Isaac giving Danny a thumbs up.

"Now that everyone is here, we can stop rehashing the same information you already know and tell you something new," Peter said as he rocked the chair back forth while running his fingers through Lydia's grimy hair. His creepy smile made Scott involuntarily shudder.

"You had better." Allison gripped the table with her hands so hard Scott could swear he heard the wood cracking. "I'm getting sick of your games."

"Where did you want to start?" Peter's grin grew even wider. It bordered on psychotic, Scott thought.

"What killed Rory?" Allison demanded. Scott had no idea who this Rory was, but anyone could tell that the person meant a lot to her. "What were you doing there?"

"It was a house cat," Peter answered simply, as though he were doing a crossword puzzle. "One that has been alive too long and grown too powerful."

Nobody laughed. It was too absurd to take seriously, but Scott felt Danny tense up beside him. He could tell from Peter's heartbeat that he wasn't lying.

"See, when the lovers over there raised the dead and tried to cover it up, they only cared about the humans revived." Scott could tell that Allison was determined not to look at him or Danny. Her icy gaze stayed fixed on Peter. "They forgot the reason the dead even came back was a young man's wish to have a beloved family pet returned to him. What he got was his pet back with something else in tow."

"Something else in tow? What are you talking about?" Isaac wondered from his spot beside Danny. "I get that you're the big mystery guy, but the whole mystery thing doesn't work when you're trying not to be so mysterious."

"I'm not quite sure what it is. I just know that when these people, and cat, came back what used to reside in the bodies no longer did. I'm not the religious type, so I won't say they're demons or angels or anything quite so boring. What I will say is that, having been dead, I'm certain that there are worlds and lives beyond this one. And I think these things used the little Asian boy to cross into this one."

"I'm not Asian," Danny spoke up awkwardly. "I'm from the Pacific Islands. Hawaii, specifically. I'm Hawaiian."

"That's not important," Allison dismissed casually without even looking at Danny. "How do you know this?"

"How do you think I know?" Peter smirked as he kissed Lydia's forehead. All Scott wanted to do was vomited and rip Peter's head off. The order didn't matter. "I'd been tracking the beast for weeks when that girl died. Unfortunately, I lost it recently and haven't been able to find it again."

"So we made a new plan," Lydia added as she snuggled against Peter. Everyone else in the room cringed or flinched.

"Yes, we did, Love," Peter agreed as he looked hungrily at Danny. "We hoped that by performing a bond with the one responsible for the resurrection, we could use it to find the beast, but that didn't happen. I still have no idea where it is or where it could have gone. And we need to find it because the longer it's on this plane the stronger it becomes."

"Why didn't you just tell us?" Scott asked. "It's the simplest thing."

"Because you're all idiots, quite frankly," Peter commented with a shrug. "I mean, none of you even wondered why I disappeared for days did you? Or why I let Lydia find me? It was because I had lost the trail of the creature and didn't feel like walking home. In case you were wondering."

"So you used me?" Lydia sat up and pouted at Peter. "That wasn't very nice. I should punish you."

"You turned me into my nephew and laughed as he beat me. If anyone needs punished, it's you," Peter countered with a kiss.

"That's enough of that," Scott shouted at them. "If you two are going to be creepy as hell and all paedophilac and stuff can you not do it in my living room? You're grossing us out. And I'm not convinced you aren't doing some sort of rapey mind control thing. Because, you know, Lydia is freaking insane right now."

"RUDE!" Lydia cried indignantly.

"It really is," Peter agreed. "It's not like I'm a vampire putting her under my thrall."

"Do vampires really exist?" Danny asked the room. "I mean, there are werewolves and kanimas and stuff."

"That's a whole other conversation."

"Will you shut up?" Allison yelled at the entire room. She kicked Scott's coffee table and let loose a guttural scream. She pulled Lydia off of Peter and got in his face. Her breath was heavy and Scott could tell she was one wrong word away from trying to kill somebody. "How the hell does a cat kill a person, and how do I kill it?"

Sighing, Peter resumed his rocking. "I told you, the longer they're here, the stronger they get. The more deforned their appearance. That's why I had Lydia destroy the stone. We closed the door so no more will cross over, but we have to worry about the one still here. And since it was the first it is bound to be the strongest. But you kill it like you would anything else."

"Fine," Allison grumbled as she backed away from Peter. "But just so you know, as soon as this is dealt with, you and your nephew are back on the top of my list."

"You talk as though I left it."

Allison pulled her cell phone out and left the house. Everyone else sat in silence as they listened to the sounds of Allison's vehicle starting.

"Can you guys leave? I really don't want to explain to my mom why you're all here," Scott finally asked of his guests. He had a separate request for Peter. "And can you, you know, not take Lydia with you? Because I'm pretty sure this whole thing you have going on with her isn't legal."

"You know, Scott, you and I share a bond, too. I may not be an Alpha anymore, but I am still the one who made you what you are," Peter told him lewdly as he stood up. "You could always join us."

"Just get your creepy ass of out of my house," Scott ordered as he pointed to the door. "And Lydia is staying here. No argument."

"Very well. Take good care of our son," Peter told Lydia with a wink. "Come, Isaac, I suppose I should tell my nephew what is happening so he can make yet another ill-conceived plan that blows up in his face."

When there were just the three of them left in the house, Scott asked Lydia to get a shower. "Honestly, you're kind of gross. You can borrow something from my mom to wear."

Lydia didn't argue, she just wandered up the stairs while humming to herself. Peter and Isaac left without further comment, though Isaac did make kissing noises in Danny's direction.

"Do you want me to go, too?" Danny asked once they were alone. "I mean, I should probably call my parents and let them know I'm alive. And figure out how to explain the unconscious nurse we left on the floor of my hospital room."

"Would it be selfish of me to ask you to stay?" Scott wondered aloud as he tentatively kissed Danny. He leaned into it and grabbed the back of the couch to support himself. When they broke apart, Danny was smiling. It was nice when Danny smiled. "Can I just ask that we try to be normal for five minutes? No werewolves, no ex-girlfriends, no thinking about the crazy girl upstairs?"

"It works for me, but you only get five minutes," Danny agreed as he returned Scott's kiss.

TW

Stiles held his dad's hand and tried not to think about what was happening at Scott's house. He felt horrible for spending so much time away from his dad. The doctors had told him that there had been no deterioration of his condition, but no change either.

"How is he?" Allison asked as she walked into the room and put a hand on Stiles' shoulder.

"Shouldn't you be off trying to kill the Hales or something?" Stiles muttered to her as she draped her arms around him and hugged him from behind. He didn't need wolf powers to hear her sniffling.

"I called my dad. He's dealing with it right now. I thought you could use a friend." Stiles reached up and held her hands. "I can't say I know how you're feeling or what you're thinking. But I've been here. Kinda."

"Your mom." Stiles didn't even need to look at her to know what she meant. It hadn't even been a year. Hell, he didn't even think Allison's mom had been gone for six months.

"Yeah," Allison sniffed in his ear. "My mom. I don't want to promise you that your dad is going to get better. But there is a chance that he'll come back to you. And whether he does or not, I'll be here to help you with whatever you need. I don't want you and your dad to have the distance I have with mine."

"Allison, thank you, but that's not why you're here." As much as he appreciated her words, he didn't want to sound ungrateful by calling her out. "You know that Scott hooked up with Danny and since Lydia is insane and you hate your dad right now I'm the only shoulder you have left to cry on."

Her arms left his shoulders and he heard the dam she'd been holding break.

"I'm sorry," he heard her whisper as she stepped away from him. "God, I'm an awful person."

"You're not," Stiles said regretfully as he turned around and looked at her. He wished he hadn't said anything. "You're not awful. You're human. You're just a kid. We all are. We're all going to be selfish assholes from time to time and it's okay."

"Stop comforting me!" Allison cried as she grabbed her stomach. Stiles let his dad's hand go and ran to Allison. He held her close and she didn't even fight him. "I should be making you feel better."

"It's okay. Really," Stiles assured her as she cried into his shirt. "Allison, I've cried every night since my dad was admitted. It's okay to cry. I've been lucky to have Scott's mom. And you have me."

"Stiles, are you hitting on me?" Allison laughed through her tears.

"If I said 'yes', would I have a chance?" he smiled as he held her.

"Not in hell," she admitted as she hugged him back.


	11. Chapter 11

The room was cold and sterile, but the people were warm and friendly. Lydia hated it. She missed her husband and her son. In her blood, she could feel them. They pulsed through her veins, calling out to her and she couldn't answer them.

The people who used to be her parents had visited earlier. They cooed and awed and swore they'd help her get better, but when Lydia pleaded for her real family they ignored her. So she hit them until the nice people in scrubs turned mean and held her down.

When she woke up, her door was locked and she was alone. Except, she would never be alone.

TW

"He's my best friend and he's needs a pick me up," Scott pleaded as he and Danny walked the grounds of the school together.

"I will dump you. Right here and now," Danny joked with a laugh. "After my parents found out we vanished from the hospital, my mom started looking up ankle monitors online. If anyone needs a pick-me-up, it's me."

After looking around, Scott nervously gave Danny a peck on the lips. Nobody in the area said anything, though a few did look a little longer than necessary.

"It's progress. I suppose," Danny told Scott as he grabbed his hand. He was pleasantly surprised when Scott didn't avoid the gesture. "But the answer is still no."

"I'm trying," Scott argued as he held up his and Danny's hands. "You know how new to me this all is. It's just one little thing."

"How are my favourite gays?" Stiles interrupted as he wedged himself between Danny and Scott. He threw his arms over their shoulders. "Did y'all miss me at the company picnic yesterday?"

Scott looked at Danny, but received a silent "no" in return.

"You came home kinda late," Scott noted as he let go of Danny's hand so they could actually move. The trio walked into the school together, Stiles still sandwiched between Scott and Danny. "I haven't had a chance to catch you up. We'll do it at lunch. How's your dad?"

"He's still the same. And we'll have to catch up during study hall. I already have a lunch date," Stiles informed them as he stopped at his locker. He let them go and wished them well. "Later."

"See, he's fine," Danny acknowledged as they continued walking. Scott slipped his hand back into Danny's. Appreciating the meaning behind the gesture and how hard Scott was trying, he sighed. "Fine. Just this once. And you owe me dinner."

"Thanks," Scott smiled.

"Stiles!" Danny called as he turned around. The teenager pulled his head out of his locker, half a candy bar sticking out of his mouth. "You, uh, you look cute today."

"YES!" Stiles shouted around his candy bar as he posed dramatically.

Danny looked back at Scott and shook his head. "You. Owe. Me."

TW

Allison was sitting outside under a tree when Stiles found her. She was eating an apple.

"I would've thought you'd be sick of those things by now," he laughed as he sat beside her. "I kinda heard that's all you guys ate on the grand road trip."

"Honestly, I've always loved them. Don't tell Scott and Danny that, though. They'd accuse me of spoiling myself at their expense," she replied with a smirk before biting into the apple again.

"Cross my heart and hope to... uh, I'm just gonna cross my heart," Stiles promised. "Thanks for last night. I think we both needed a good cry."

"But you didn't," Allison pointed out. "If my memory is correct, and it should be, then I was the only weepy mess last night."

"That's because I waited until you left like every big, strong man should," Stiles bragged with a puffed out chest. Allison poked it with her finger and he let it collapse with a deflating sound. "You really know how to kill a man's ego."

"Something tells me that yours is going to be just fine."

Stiles was glad Allison was better. The hard exterior she'd been wearing was melting away and the girl he'd befriend was finally coming back. He'd missed her. Allison had changed after her mom died, and it definitely wasn't for the better.

"This is true," Stiles agreed as he nodded his head. "Did you hear Lydia is back to being crazy?"

"Hear? I saw it. She thinks she's in love with Peter Hale and that Danny is her son."

"Scott's Danny?" he asked without thinking.

"I wouldn't put it that way," Allison said darkly as she took another bite from her apple. "I'm allowed to not like him, right? Like, I know everybody likes Danny, but I don't think I should have to like him since he's dating my ex-boyfriend."

"I guess," Stiles shrugged as he leaned back against the tree. "He thinks I'm cute, though."

"He has lousy taste in men," Allison laughed as she nudged Stiles with her elbow. "Come on. Say something."

"I don't think I'm allowed to trash my best friend's boyfriend. It's gotta be against some kind of rule," Stiles said as he looked up at the leaves in the tree. "Besides, not everyone thinks I'm cute."

Allison leaned against Stiles, laying her head on his shoulder. "I think you're cute."

"Why, Miss Argent, are you coming onto me?" Stiles asked with a mock horrified face.

"Cute like a little brother." Allison grinned. "It's gonna be a long night, you know."

"Why is that?" Stiles wondered.

"I can't believe you'd forget that tonight is the full moon. My dad and the others are gonna be hunting. And I'm gonna be trying to keep them from killing anybody I like."

"This is not going to be good," Stiles whispered to himself as he thought about Scott.

TW

"Stomp the wrist, kick the weapon away," Lydia ordered herself as the syringe hit the wall. She tightened the sheet that she had wrapped around the orderly's neck until he stopped fighting.

Grabbing the syringe gently, Lydia picked it up before quietly slipping out of her room. The orderly's key card was clasped between her teeth. She slowly made her way into the community area, avoiding any staff she saw. The less crazy patients milled about. One man was cradling a doll and singing lullabies. Lydia smiled. It reminded her of Peter and Danny. She needed to get to them.

The linoleum tiles were cold under her bare feet. Her palms were sweaty as she made her run for the door. She slid the card and it popped open. A nurse yelled at her to stop, but Lydia kept running. A security guard body checked her into a wall. Lydia hit it hard, but she bounced off and slammed the needle into the guard's neck and pushed down on the plunger.

Dodging and weaving through the medical staff with a combination of werewolf training and insane unpredictability, Lydia skipped the elevator and ran straight for the stairs.

TW

"Dude, it's the full moon," Stiles yelled as he drove Scott home. "We need to call Derek."

"We do not need to call Derek. I haven't had any problems with control in ages, Stiles," Scott reminded him as he looked out the window.

"Yeah, but you don't have Allison anymore. And I like Danny, even if he hates me, but I somehow think that he's not going to do for you what Allison did."

"Why?" Scott asked as he rolled his eyes in his friend's direction. "Because he's a guy?"

"No, because he's not Allison."

"I think I know that, Stiles. It's going to be fine. Now can we drop it?"

"Fine, we won't talk about how you're going to go crazy tonight and probably kill me, your mom, your boyfriend, and anybody stupid enough to be outdoors," Stiles agreed sarcastically as he turned onto a different road. "And when you find yourself being cut in half by Allison's dad don't say I didn't warn you."

"You're trying awfully hard to guilt trip me over a breakup that you weren't even involved in," Scott complained as he slouched in his seat. "But if it will make you feel better, we can call Isaac. Not Derek."

"Thank you," Stiles told Scott as he pulled out his phone. "You won't regret this anywhere near as much as you did that haircut you had when you first became all teeth and fur."

TW

When he woke up, Isaac wanted to hit Stiles. He embraced the anger and picked himself up from the floor. His jacket and t-shirt were in tatters, but the scratches Scott had left on him were already healed. Stiles, on the other hand, was untouched but hiding in Scott's closet. Isaac could smell him but not his blood.

Weren't Betas supposed to be stronger than Omegas? He'd have to ask Derek that after Scott had been found and subdued.

"Come on," Isaac said as he opened the closet door and held his hand out for Stiles. "I'm going to try to track your boyfriend, but we should really consider getting him one of those chips they put in dogs or cats."

"He does work for a vet," Stiles noted as Isaac hauled him to his feet. "I'll get the keys to my jeep."

"I don't need a jeep," Isaac reminded him as he stepped onto the sill of the open window. "Catch you on the flip side."

He wasn't as flashy as Derek, but Isaac still liked to leave an impression so he did what he considered an impressive swan dive turned somersault when he hit the ground before sniffing the air. Scott's scent was all over the yard in various stages of decay, but it only took a few good whiffs to find the most recent trail.

A werewolf's scent actually changed slightly when they shifted from human form, so that made it even easier for Isaac to track him as he ran through the streets of Beacon Hills. He pushed himself to his human limits, unwilling to shift to his much faster human form. Isaac liked Scott, but not enough to risk dying by the hands of the hunters.

Isaac was prepared for a lot of things when he found Scott. He was ready to fight him again, to stumble across his bisected corpse, but not to have him go into the Argent house. Isaac easily scaled the gutter's drainpipe and climbed into the first open window he found. It was clearly a teenaged girl's room, and lying naked on the bed was Scott in his human form. After pulling his phone from his pocket, Isaac hesitated on just who he needed to call.

TW

Allison pulled into her driveway. Isaac was waiting in the bushes just off to the side of the house. She killed the engine and pulled the keys from the ignition.

"I know you said it was him on the phone, but you're sure it's Scott?" she double-checked as she held her crossbow in one hand and her house key in the other. "It's not some other werewolf that was stupid enough to break into my house?

"Believe me, I'd recognize that... erm... anywhere. Guys say they don't look in the locker room, but we do," Isaac grinned as he raised his eyebrows.

"Is every guy I know trying to sleep with my ex?" Allison sighed as she opened her door.

"I'm not saying I wouldn't, but I'm straight, my dear. Just a little more flexible than others."

She wasn't sure if Isaac was being crude on purpose or if it was his socially stunted form of flirting, but Allison ignored him as she readied her crossbow and silently walked up the stairs. Her father taught her that any situation could be dangerous. Even your ex-boyfriend napping in your bed with no clothes on.

Her bedroom door creaked as she opened it. Crossbow at the ready, Allison stepped into her room and Scott was indeed lying naked on her bed. It was a good thing she'd gotten home before her father. Even if Scott hadn't been a werewolf, he'd still be dead.

"Isaac, get in here," Allison called in a stage whisper. The crossbow stayed trained on Scott's unconscious form. "I need you to wake him up."

"Why me?" Isaac whined as he entered. "When did I become Scott McCall's chew toy?"

Eyes not moving from Scott's face, Allison watched as Isaac reluctantly leaned over the bed and gave Scott a hard shake. When the dark skinned boy jerked awake, Isaac stumbled backward and crashed into Allison's dresser.

"What did I do?" Scott asked in a panic as he saw Allison holding her weapon on him. Then he looked down and grabbed her blanket to cover himself. "Um..."

"I'm more interested in why you're not all 'Grrr" right now," Isaac said as he squatted beside the bed and studied Scott's face. "Back at your house, you were, like, crazy out of control."

"Where is Stiles?" Scott looked around the room before wrapping Allison's blanket around his waist. He ran over to the open window. "His jeep isn't out there. Please tell me I didn't kill him."

"Relax, he's alive and out looking for you now. I should probably let him know you're okay, actually." Isaac pulled Scott away from the window and closed it. "What you need to do is calm down and get some clothes on. Allison?"

"Guest bedroom. Down the hall. We still have my grandfather's stuff there. Scott can wear that," she answered as she kept her eyes and crossbow locked on Scott. "Don't take forever."

"I'm not going to hurt you," Scott assured Allison after Isaac left the room. "I'm perfectly calm and in control right now."

"But I don't know if I'm going to hurt you or not," she threatened loudly. She knew that even if she said it in a a reasonable manner Isaac would hear, but she wanted to be sure. "You don't get to do this, Scott. I know you didn't mean to, but it's all kinds of not cool. You don't get to dump me and move on then crash naked in my room on some sort of lunar bender.

"How am I supposed to react, Scott? Glad that subconsciously you still want me? Because that's not happening. I don't know what is, but it's not something happy. I'm pissed."

"Allison, you don't want to shoot me," Scott reasoned nervously. "I didn't cheat on you with Danny. Things happened, and I ended them with you."

Allison bit her lip and fought back the tears. "You think I care? You think waiting two weeks before moving on with your boy toy is doing me a favour? You are an idiot, Scott McCall. The biggest idiot in Beacon Hills and that's saying a lot. Listen to my heartbeat. I'm not lying when I say I don't want to kill you. I want you to be happy and healthy and alive. I just don't want to have to see it.

"There is a thing known as tact, Scott. And using me to control your werewolf urges while seeing somebody else isn't very tactful. It hurts."

"Why didn't you say something?" Scott asked her as he stood up. He walked to her with a kind face and an outstretched arm. "Allison, I'm sorry."

"Don't touch me." Her voice cracked and a tear fell free from its dam. The last thing Allison wanted was to be that girl who cried and had to be consoled by her ex. She could rationalize her breakdown with Stiles away, but not this. Not in her home. She stepped back and tightened her grip on her crossbow, but not on the trigger. "Scott McCall, don't you..."

Before she could finish, he'd already ripped the weapon from her hands and thrown it on the bed. The arrow launched from the crossbow's careless handling and embedded itself in the ceiling. Allison noticed it, but not Scott.

The other thing she noticed was Scott's body pressed against hers. His hands on her hips and his big brown eyes looking into hers. They were asking for forgiveness she couldn't give.

"Scott." Allison couldn't say anything else before he kissed her. And it wasn't a kiss goodbye. He slammed her against the wall and she dug her fingernails in his back. He hadn't kissed her like before, and Allison asked herself why . She grabbed his wrists and raised his hands above his head, then switched their places roughly. Her knee slid between his thighs.

"I think I'm going to interrupt now," Isaac spoke up as he threw a shirt and a pair of slacks at the two. It might as hell have been a bucket of cold water. "Before you do even more things you're going to regret."

"You should leave." Allison let Scott go and turned her back to him as he started to dress. Any passion she held had suddenly become cold regret. ""Go home, stay calm, talk to Danny."

"I'm really sorry," Scott pleaded. Allison didn't need werewolf senses to know he was telling the truth.

"So am I," she whispered to herself even though she knew they could both hear her. She looked at Isaac. "You take care of him. And you tell nobody what you saw. Understand?"

"Perfectly," he nodded as he helped usher Scott out of Allison's room.

It wasn't over. Allison knew it. And as she ripped the arrow from her wall, she wondered how she was going to explain to her father how she failed basic weapons safety.

TW

He had been waiting for her in the lobby, just as she knew he would. She ran to him and jumped in his arms. He held her, spinning her around before setting her down. Then she jumped on his back and they ran as fast as his legs would allow. Security never managed to find them.

Now, it was night time and he braided her hair as she closed her eyes and thought. Lydia dug her fingers into the dirt and growled. She could smell the decaying leaves and the insects that ate them. With a grunt, she arched her back and looked at the moon.

"Am I like you now?" Lydia asked Peter as she flared her nostrils and inhaled the scent of the surrounding wilderness.

"You're nothing like me," Peter told her as he ran the length of her spine with the palm of his hand. "You're perfection. You're intoxication incarnate."

"Thank you," Lydia agreed as she twisted around and kissed Peter. "So I'm not a wolf?"

"It doesn't work like that, Love," Peter reminded her as he bared his fangs. "You have to have the bit of an Alpha, and I'm just a Beta. Also, you're immune."

"I forgot," Lydia remarked before pulling at Peter's shirt until his shoulder was exposed. "I don't remember life before you too well. I don't think I want to."

She bit down on his exposed flesh: enough to break the skin, but not hard enough to draw blood. Fingers traced the fresh bruising as Lydia lifted her head back up. She climbed into Peter's lap and laced her arms around his neck.

"Are you immune to me?" she whispered against his lips as her fingers snaked their way into his hair. Lydia ground against his thighs, enjoy the involuntary sounds he made.

"Never," Peter admitted before kissing her.

TW

Stiles ran into the house, thankful that Scott's mom had the night shift. He took the stairs two at a time and burst into Scott's bedroom.

"Why is he dressed like an old man?" Stiles asked Isaac as he stopped to breathe.

"Because he's wearing an old man's clothes," Isaac shrugged. "Thing is, he's fine now."

"Yeah... How did that happen, again?" Stiles wondered as poked Scott. Scott wouldn't look at either of the people in the room.

"Allison," was all Stiles could get Isaac to say. The blond werewolf wouldn't elaborate any further.

"What did she do? Tranquilizers?" Stiles sat next to Scott and pulled the shirt up looking for wounds of any kind.

Scott slapped Stiles hands away, and Stiles responded by slapping Scott's right back. Isaac broke them up. "Look, sunrise is in a few hours and I'd like to get some sleep, so if you think your boy is good I'm gonna take off."

"Thanks," Scott apologized to Isaac. "For everything."

"Hey, it's what friends do. Derek is gonna be pissed I took off again. I kind of didn't tell him about this."

Isaac jumped out of the window and took off running into the horizon.

"I really hope we don't need him," Stiles muttered as he slammed the window shut. "Mind telling me what happened?"

"I kissed Allison?" Scott admitted, though he didn't sound sure of it. "Like, really kissed her."

With a roll of his eyes, Stiles sat on Scott's desk. "You know, one of these days you're going to be listening to sordid and varied tales of my salacious love life."

"Salacious?" Scott scratched the back of his head. "What does eating vegetables have to do with anything?"

"You know what? It'd just be easier for me if you picked being gay or being straight because this whole bisexual thing is too confusing." Stiles swung his legs back and forth.

"Tell me about it," Scott fell back on his bed. "My life was so much easier when all I had was you and Allison, y'know?"

"I seem to recall that life having about the same mortality rate as this one, actually," Stiles commented with a shrug. "I mean, far be it from me to point out the casual truths of life, but you and Danny literally just started dating and you're already making out with your ex while wearing someone else's clothes."

"Actually, I was naked at the time," Scott admitted unhappily.

"I am so glad I didn't see this. So, so glad." Stiles pulled out his phone and double-checked his messages. Nothing new. "So, what are you going to do? Dump Danny and go back to Allison? Because I think he's finally starting to like me and I will not have you and your out of control teenage hormones mess that up."

Scott shrugged uselessly. "I don't really want to break up with Danny. I like him a lot, and it's nice to not have the baggage that I have with Allison."

"But you don't love him." Stiles was so accurate he saw Scott flinch.

"It's too early to use that word. I could, someday, but with Allison I just knew. Like, it was head-over-heels-love-at-first-sight."

"I'm blocking The CW from your TV until you stop talking like that," Stiles joked. "Look, whatever happens with Danny, you need to stop toying with Allison. It's not cool. Don't be that guy. Nobody likes that guy. Except maybe Peter Hale. I don't think there's anything he doesn't like."

Stiles shivered as he recalled the feel of Peter's hand on his backside.

"Do I even want to know?" Scott raised an eyebrow in Stiles' direction.

"No, you do not."


	12. Chapter 12

Scott kissed Danny before he could say a word. He kissed him long, hard, and deep. It told him everything he needed to know.

"What was that for?" Danny gasped with a chuckle as he tried to catch his breath.

"I wanted to see what would happen," Scott answered with a smile as he grabbed Danny's hands in his own. "And I got what I was looking for."

Intrigued, Danny pulled Scott into a new kiss that Scott happily returned. They only stopped when they heard the applause.

"I knew it!" Coach Finstock clapped as he walked to them in the hall. Scott and Danny looked at each other and laughed before running. Dealing with Coach was the last thing either wanted to do. He yelled after them, "I'm totally fine with it!"

They ducked into the gym and hid under the bleachers. Scott kissed Danny again before laughing. "He's going to be insufferable, you know."

"Isn't he always insufferable?" Danny asked as he stuck his hands in Scott's back pockets and pulled him close.

Really, Scott liked this kissing Danny thing. "Let's skip first period and stay here."

"As fun an idea as that sounds, some of us actually don't want to fail our classes."

"A 'D' is still a passing grade," Scott argued weakly as Danny began nibbling on his earlobe. "Are you sure you don't wanna stay here? You seem awfully into the idea."

"Oh, I'm into it," Danny whispered in Scott's ear. "I'm just not doing it."

Danny gave Scott one last kiss before breaking away and running off to class. Scott remained under the bleachers as the tardy bell went off. There really was no choice.

TW

Lydia walked with Peter, hand-in-hand, onto the empty football field. They were happy, in love, and it worked. It actually worked!

"It's here," she whispered as she held her index finger to her lips. They scanned the treeline together.

It had happened the night before, as they consummated their love. Something deep and foreign and primal lurked on the edge of Lydia's consciousness and all she had to do was reach out and touch it. So she did. And it had been cold. Like bathing in a pool of ice crystals. But they did it.

"Go get him," Lydia instructed Peter. "Get them both."

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked as he let go of her hand.

She assured him that she would be fine. He nodded and watched again for the beast before running in the direction of the school.

Lydia held her arms up and took in the sun. She would do anything for Peter Hale. Taking the blame for attacking the nurse in Danny's hospital room seemed trivial compared to what she was about to do.

TW

Danny had barely stepped out of the gym when Peter grabbed him. The halls were empty as everyone else was already in homeroom.

"Quiet," Peter murmured in Danny's ear as he held a hand over his mouth. "I need you to find that cute little boyfriend of yours and meet me at the football field. Would you know where he is?"

Eyes wide in fear, Danny shook his head. His mind raced with all the ways Peter could kill him.

"I can hear your heart. You're lying to me. That's not a good idea. Lydia may think of you as our son, but I can assure you that I don't." Peter ran a claw down Danny's face, slicing his cheek open. Peter licked the first drops of blood off Danny's cheek. "Now, why don't you be a good boy and..."

He was interrupted when Scott burst through the gym door and ripped Peter away from Danny. In his panic, Danny noted that neither Scott nor Peter was going into wolf form. Then he looked up and saw a security camera.

Scott slammed Peter into a set of lockers and Danny was wondering why there weren't any teachers coming out to see what what was causing the commotion. He made a note to hack the school's computer system and deleted the footage. Since the cameras were relatively new, it was likely they were digital only. And Scott could easily break into the school and steal any physical backups.

Different plans of how to cover up the fight were forming in Danny's head when he felt it. It wasn't anything physical. There was something tugging at the back of his mind, and with each heartbeat it grew stronger and louder. Something wet was on his cheek and Danny touch it with his hand. It felt sticky and he remembered that Peter had cut him. When he looked at the blood on his hand, Danny heard the voice in his head scream with absolute clarity.

"LYDIA!" he shouted as he ran past Scott and Peter. Danny had no idea how he knew she was in danger. He didn't even know how he knew where to go.

Peter easily outpaced Danny, with Scott hot on his heels. Stopping, and thinking, Danny knew just what to do.

TW

Scott finally stopped chasing Peter when they hit the field. Part of it was because Peter had stopped running, but mostly it was because he saw why Peter had stopped running.

There was cat in the middle of the field. A very large cat that, when upright, would have stood as tall as a man and had fur matted with blood and grime. It was batting around a clearly unconscious Lydia like any house cat would a mouse before going in for the kill. Thankfully, it never got the chance because Peter charged at it in a blind rage and tackled the beast.

As they exchanged claws and fangs, Scott slipped through the chaos and grabbed Lydia. She was still alive and didn't seem too damaged. He couldn't understand how she'd gotten out of the hospital's psych ward without Peter killing everyone. That would've been huge news. It didn't make any sense.

Setting the girl down by the bench he had grown so familiar with during lacrosse season, Scott shifted to wolf mode and joined in on the battle. Peter was not doing well. The cat didn't fight like any cat Scott had ever seen. He remembered from biology class that lions were often lazy and only went after the weakest prey. This one was proactive and seemed intelligent. Scott flashed back to when Peter told them all that Danny's dead cat had killed Allison's cousin. It had seemed ridiculous at the time, but it was only slightly less ridiculous in person.

What wasn't familiar, though it should have been by now, was the pain of retractable claws digging into his side and then being tossed through the air. Scott never got used to the pain. He half hoped that he never would.

The cat hissed as Peter jumped on its back and dug into its neck with his teeth and claws. For a few seconds, it tried to shake him off to no avail, then it reared up on its hind legs and fell straight back on top of him. Scott dove for the exposed underbelly but was hit by the cat's hind legs. Its claws dug into his chest before pushing him off. He stared at the sky as he struggled to breathe. It took so long for his lungs to heal themselves that he thought for a second he was having another asthma attack.

He heard the car before he saw it. It sounded a lot like Stiles' jeep.

"Stop here!" Scott heard Danny yell. "You take care of Lydia!"

Sod hit Scott as Stiles slammed on the jeep's brakes in the middle of the field. He sat up, still in pain, but able to breathe a bit. He saw Danny walk towards the cat and wanted to yell at him to stop but his voice couldn't work yet.

"I'm here!" Danny yelled at the cat, grabbing its attention away from trying to chew Peter in half. "I made you, you son of a bitch. And I'm going to end you."

Then Scott heard a "zing" and the cat's head exploded. It was rather anticlimactic until he looked over at Stiles' jeep and saw Allison holding a very threatening sniper rifle. She was also still aiming it.

"NOOO!" Lydia screamed as she burst from Stiles' arms and slammed into the side of the jeep, rocking it as Allison pulled the trigger again.

The second bullet missed Peter by inches. He made a dash for cover and Scott didn't even try to stop him. Stiles held Lydia to keep her from running after Peter. She only calmed down when she saw Danny. She fell on all fours and crawled to him. Her body was wracked with sobs. Danny knelt down and held her. He looked at Scott and smiled.

It was a weary but relieved smile and Scott accepted it. He looked back at the beast and saw that it had shrunk to the size of a house cat.

"We should probably get out of here before someone finds us on school grounds with a loaded weapon, you know," Stiles pointed out. "Everyone in the jeep. We'll squeeze."

Danny sat up front with Stiles, holding Lydia in his arms. Scott hid in the back with Allison as they drove away.

"I won't tell him," Allison assured Scott as she set the safety on the gun.

"Why do you have a sniper rifle?!" Scott whispered loudly. "I think that's the bigger deal right now."

"My dad has a sniper rifle hidden in all of our cars. Danny pulled me and Stiles out of Economics to rescue your ass. Coach Finstock didn't seem to mind," Allison explained. "And I know you chose Danny."

Scott was really happy that Lydia was being extremely loud in the front seat so that neither Danny nor Stiles would hear the awkward conversation he was trying not to have.

"I won't tell him. I'll make sure Isaac doesn't, either. You just make sure it never happens again," Allison warned in a low voice. "Stiles, go to my house. My dad is the one that's least likely to freak out."

TW

"I really wish you two wouldn't make out in the seat right beside me," Stiles groaned as he pulled out of Allison's driveway. "It's bad enough Allison's dad scares the crap out of me, do you have to mentally scar me as well?"

"What, do you want to join in?" Scott laughed as he playfully punched Stiles in the arm.

"I don't like sharing," Danny insisted as he kissed Scott again.

"I was going to say no, anyway," Stiles pouted. "I really hope that Mr. Argent can figure out just what Peter did to Lydia and gets her back to normal. Are you even listening to me?"

"Yes, Stiles, we're listening," Scott acknowledged with a roll of his eyes. "Mr. Argent promised us that he would do his best to take care of everything."

"I'm so glad you two are so nauseatingly happy now that you're out of dead things to kill," Stiles complained as Scott and Danny returned to groping each other. "Now we can go back to the simple days of trying to figure out where Allison's grandfather went, why my dad won't wake up, and why Derek has been so freaked out lately."


End file.
